earning ashes

I'd heard of Mardi Gras before, but as a child I grew up not knowing what Fat Tuesday or Ash Wednesday or Lent was. Our church tradition never mentioned it, and certainly didn't practice the forty days of sacrifice leading up to Easter.

Now that I'm aware, I decided to participate in my first ever Ash Wednesday service yesterday at the Cathedral of the Ascension in Frankfort, Kentucky. The entire ceremony was full of pageantry (by comparison to my simpler church upbringing). It was beautiful and emotional and moving and motivating. Along with all of the other worshippers there, I made my way to the altar to receive the ashes and the eucharist.

As beautiful and humbling as the service and the challenge was, it was the recited prayer that we prayed together that moved me most. While some of the others who recited out of habit repeated the lines while thinking of other, more earthly things, I read them, prayed them, and cried.

So, do as I did this past Ash Wednesday and read these words. Then contemplate them and say them out loud - both to yourself and to God. If you pay attention you'll likely be moved.

Most holy and merciful Father:We confess to you and to one another, and to the whole communion of saints in heaven and on earth, that we have sinned by our own fault in thought, word, and deed; by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven.Have mercy on us, Lord.

We have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ served us. We have not been true to the mind of Christ. We have grieved your Holy Spirit.Have mercy on us, Lord.

We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of our lives, We confess to you, Lord.

Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people, We confess to you, Lord.

Our anger at our own frustration, and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves, We confess to you, Lord.

Our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work, We confess to you, Lord.

Our negligence in prayer and worship, and our failure to commend the faith that is in us, We confess to you, Lord.

Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done: for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty, Accept our repentance, Lord.

For all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors, and for our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us, Accept our repentance, Lord.

For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us, Accept our repentance, Lord.

Restore us, good Lord, and let your anger depart from us; Favorably hear us, for your mercy is great.

Accomplish in us the work of your salvation,That we may show forth your glory in the world.

By the cross and passion of your Son our Lord,Bring us with all your saints to the joy of his resurrection.

Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desires not the death of sinners, but rather that they may turn from their wickedness and live, has given power and commandment to his ministers to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the absolution and remission of their sins. He pardons and absolves all those who truly repent, and with sincere hearts believe his holy Gospel.

Therefore we beseech him to grant us true repentance and his Holy Spirit, that those things may please him which we do on this day, and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy, so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen