Ash Wednesday (05 March) will be observed at the Chapel of Christ the Healer, Cork University Hospital once again by the opportunity for patients, staff and visitors to reflect, pray and to receive ashes as symbols of our penitence and mortality. 

It will also be an opportunity to meet our new locum chaplain the Reverend Anne Skuse.

At 07:30 and again at 12:00 there will be two short services of reflection and the imposition of ashes for those who wish to receive them as a potent biblical symbol of our brokenness and mortality -themes which illness can bring into a gritty foreground of experience.

Outside these times, there will be reflective music, prayer cards and ash available in the chapel with the invitation for all who wish, to sign themselves with ash at a time that is convenient for them.

Hospital Chaplain Daniel Nuzum says ‘Ashes to go provides an open invitation for all in the hospital community to take some time out for personal reflection and prayer and to avail of the opportunity to receive ashes in the privacy of the beautiful Chapel of Christ the Healer. When all is done we are but dust… in this place of illness, suffering, mystery and healing we take ash to come close to our pain and invite God to meet us, to touch us to heal us.’

Ashes to go first started at St John’s Episcopal Church in St Louis,  Missouri, USA in 2007 and is an imaginative way to meet God’s people where they are and to invite reflection, prayer and healing.

For further information please contact Daniel Nuzum at (021) 454 6400 or daniel.nuzum@hse.ie

Further information can be found on Twitter @chapelcuh or Facebook: Chapel of Christ the Healer.