The meaning of ashes on our foreheads takes us to the ground of our beings where God’s truth and mystery dwells. In awe, we stand gazing at our own lives and moments of wonder that help us to gaze at the cross with humbled and expanded hearts. From ashes to awe to the cross we stand in our truth before the crucified one and allow God to be God.

Carl Jung first wrote about the phenomenon of the two halves of life. During the first half of life, a person develops confidence in his or her identity (ego), shaping it through life’s experiences and desire for success, need for belonging, importance and security. As a person grows spiritually, though, he may find that the conscious things that initially shape his first half of life no longer help him in a path to self-discovery. If he seeks growth, he begins to face the second half of life where he must look inward and beyond what he perceives as acceptable to others.