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Blending Christianity with American Indian spirituality, Father Ed Cook made a cross mark on the foreheads of people at the Congregation of the Great Spirit on Wednesday after dipping his thumb into ashes made by burning more than just the palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday. "Turn away from sin, and follow the Gospel," Cook said to each person as members of the intertribal, predominantly American Indian congregation came forward to participate in a centuries-old Christian ritual. In their Roman Catholic congregation, however, the palm ashes are mixed in advance with ashes from a large, clay firepot where...

'Reef Balls' Enable Loved Ones' Remains to Sleep With the Fishes Associated Press Sep 25, 2004 OCEAN CITY, N.J. (AP) - As if shooting a loved one's ashes into space or pressing them into artificial diamonds were not sufficiently offbeat, relatives of the deceased now can have their ashes mixed into concrete to help form ocean habitats. A Georgia company has placed about 200 of the concrete cones, called "reef balls," in the ocean, mostly along the Gulf Coast. Last week, it interred cones filled with the ashes of several people about seven miles off the shore as part of...

Sorry but im a jr high student and half of my friends and people in my school wear the bracelets and dont play the game. just cuz some peeps wear them for that reason its kinda like prostitutes only doing that. our parents are always badgering us about the bracelets like do you know what those mean why do you where those? it usually winds up in i dont want you to wear them and that makes us wear them more! i doubt that anyone would lose sleep over them and if you did your just trying to prevent your...

BOSTON (Reuters) - A tall, rugged, blue-blood millionaire war hero from Massachusetts with the initials JFK, Sen. John Forbes Kerry rose from the political dead to claim the right to challenge President Bush (news - web sites). An early bet as the Democrats' best hope to win the White House on Nov. 2, he was running way behind in last year's pre-primary polls in Iowa and New Hampshire but recovered ground as voters took a second look at the field and rewarded him with a stunning comeback in the first two contests of the political campaign. Since wrapping up the...

Original caption: With the sign of the cross on his forehead, Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., leaves St. John's Cathedral after an Ash Wednesday visit in Cleveland, Ohio, Wednesday Feb. 25, 2004. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

February 25, 2004Ash Wednesday Psalm: Wednesday 11 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Reading II Gospel Reading IJl 2:12-18 Even now, says the LORD,return to me with your whole heart,with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;Rend your hearts, not your garments,and return to the LORD, your God.For gracious and merciful is he,slow to anger, rich in kindness,and relenting in punishment.Perhaps he will again relentand leave behind him a blessing,Offerings and libationsfor the LORD, your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion!proclaim a fast,call an assembly;Gather the people,notify the congregation;Assemble the elders,gather the childrenand the infants at the breast;Let the bridegroom quit his roomand the...

<p>LAKE CUYAMACA -- On a wind-whipped Thursday morning, Shelley Rannikko and a bustle of old and new friends dashed across a concrete slab, sweeping away ashes, unfolding table legs, frying turkey and heating gravy on propane stoves.</p> <p>This was the Thanksgiving that nothing was going to stop.</p>

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Rocky Oldaker bought a wood box for $2 at a thrift store because it looked interesting. When he opened it, what he found inside was priceless to Linda Bigford: her mother's ashes. "I don't think that is what someone's life should boil down to ... $2 at a thrift store," said Oldaker, who bought the box along with a stuffed animal and a picture frame. When he unscrewed the box bottom at home, Oldaker discovered a plastic bag of ashes and a note identifying them as those of June Peltier of Marion, Mich. Peltier, 77, died...

<p>A San Mateo man has pleaded not guilty to charges that he tried to collect a $1,500 ransom for the return of the cremated remains of a dog belonging to a Foster City family, authorities said today.</p> <p>Kenneth So, 23, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of residential burglary and attempted extortion in San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City and remained in jail today in lieu of $50,000 bail.</p>