Today is Ash Wednesday when we take the sign of the cross marked on our foreheads if we can to remind us just how simple and basic our being marked by God is. The ashes come from the burnt remains of the palms from last year’s Palm Sunday procession. They are a reminder of our mortality not because of any fear the terror of death but because when we recall death, we are driven to recognize that a deeper life comes with God’s gift of the resurrection - ours and that of Jesus.