Beginning with our baptism, we daily practice the art of dying to self. Today, the pastor or priest will say to us, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” To which we may well respond, “I do that every day.”
We remember that we, mortal creatures, beset by sin, weak and failing and falling apart, will one day join those innumerable others who have gone before us, whose bodies now lie beneath the soil. Indeed, to dust we shall return. Let us ever live, in repentance and faith, knowing that one day, to dust we shall return