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Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday prayer–guide us

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O God, we seek you out this evening with timid hearts, knowing that this night begins our journey into the darkness and towards the cross. Help us to welcome your guidance on this path and to remember that we cannot travel it alone. Keep our walk straight and true with the strength and courage of your Spirit.
As our focus turns towards your sacrifice for us, may we too make sacrifices for others in ways that show your love for the world, as demonstrated in the death and resurrection of your Son.
Be present with us now tonight and throughout this season of Lent that we may follow you faithfully to Jerusalem and view with new eyes the wonders of your love seen as a heavy cross and an empty tomb. Amen.

(would work especially well to follow this prayer with the hymn “What Wondrous Love is This”)

Submitted by Rev. Rebecca Page Lesley, Suffolk Presbyterian Church, Suffolk , VA

Ash Wednesday Communion

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Responsive Invitation to the Table (from Isaiah 58)

L: We try, God knows, we try.
We show up at church, hoping God will notice..
We study Scripture, pretending god is reading aloud to us;
we put on those masks to show everyone
how proper we are,
how law-abiding,
how religious;
and we wonder – does God even care?
P: Not when we clench our fists in anger,
rather than opening them in love;
not when we work people too hard,
and pay them too little;
not when we speak bitter and harmful words
to those we are given to love.
L: So tonight, as we begin our Lenten fast,
God offers us a feast. Why?
So that the broken bread will strengthen us
to break the chains of injustice,
to take the burden of poverty off our neighbors,
to stop trying to control those around us,
to fix a meal for the hungry.
P: God offers us a feast
so that the cup of grace will free us
to take coats out of our closets
and wrap them around shivering shoulders;
to offer shelter to the homeless
without judging them;
to spend more time with our families
and less on the internet.
L: So, come to this Table and eat.
Then, you will see the light God offers to your darkness;
then, you will find the path God calls you to walk;
then, you will discover God waiting to help you,
even before you say a word.
P: We will come to this Table and feast.

Great Prayer of Thanksgiving

L: People of God, the Lord be with you.
P: And also with you.
L: People of dust, lift up your hearts to God.
P: We lift them up to the One who created us.
L: People of ashes, give thanks to the Lord our God.
P: Praise and thanks are offered to the One who restores us to life.

Now is the right time to praise you;
now is the moment to sing your praises,
Holy God of Creation.
You formed us to live in joy
and peace with you,
but we tore your heart
when we chose our desires
over your dreams for us.
We prefer to swim in the cesspool of the world
than to be cleansed in your living waters.
We hunger more for the adulation of others
than for the quiet intimacy of your grace.
Yet you did not turn away from us
but remained true to your covenant,
calling us to return in the words
trumpeted by the prophets;
inviting us to gather in your kingdom,
entreating us to accept your overflowing love.

Therefore, we glorify you,
joining our voices with those
who had wandered far from you,
but who were brought home;
and with those who seek you now
in this time and place:

(Taize song “Bless the Lord”)

Holy are you, Steadfast Love,
and blessed is Jesus Christ,Bread of Life.
Considered a pretender to David’s throne,
he is your heart’s true Son.
Taking on the poverty of the human spirit,
he shared the abundance of your heart;
weeping over our broken relationships,
he reconciles us with your saving joy;
having nothing he could call his own,
he gives us more than we ever need;
dying like a common criminal,
he gives us life,
releasing us from the grip of sin and death.

Preparing to journey with him once again,
we remember the mystery
of his faithful obedience to your heart:

(Taize song “Jesus Christ, Bread of Life”)

Holy Spirit,
Heart of Compassion:
as the ashes of our humanity
are placed upon your baptismal seal,
so the brokenness of our lives
is placed on the Table of grace,
so the bread might make us whole,
and the cup might fill us with hope.
Then, in your wisdom,
may we turn to serve others;
in your joy,
may we bear the burdens of others;
in your grace,
may our love overflow to others.

Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ,
in the community of the Holy Spirit,
all glory and honor are yours,
God of holiness,
now and forever. Amen.

 

The Breaking of the Bread
The Sharing of the Cup
(while receiving communion, you are invited to sing the Taize song,
“Eat This Bread”)

Submitted by Rev. Thom Shuman, author of Lectionary Liturgies.

Ashes

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Imposition of the Ashes

Our ancestors in the faith
used ashes as a sign of our repentance,
a symbol of the uncertainty and fragility
of human life.
Like them,
we have tasted the ashes of hopelessness;
we have walked through the ashes
of our loss and pain;
we have stood knee-deep
in the ashes of our brokenness.

God of our lives,
out of the dust of creation
you have formed us and given us life.
May these ashes not only be a sign
of our repentance and death,
but reminders that by your gift of grace
in Jesus Christ, our Redeemer,
we are granted life forever with you.
Amen.

(A period of silence will follow. Those who wish to do so, may come
forward to have the sign of the cross placed on their foreheads or
hands. The ashes are from palm branches used at Palm Sunday services
in the past, mixed with oil).

Submitted by Rev. Thom Shuman, author of Lectionary Liturgies.

confession: our own ways

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Call to Reconciliation:

God begs us to turn from those words, those acts, those obstacles
which keep us from being God’s people. As we begin our Lenten journey,
I invite you to join with me, with words and in silence, as we bring
our brokenness to God who desires to make us whole.

Unison Prayer of Confession:

Too long have traveled our own ways, Approaching God, too long have
we sought to satisfy our hidden desires. We have trusted the
falsehoods of the world, and relied on the power which would consume
our souls. We have sought healing from impostors, and rejected the One
who was broken for our wholeness.
Have mercy on us, God whose love overflows our deepest hopes. Let
our hearts be a sanctuary for your Spirit; let our lives abound in
service to others; let our spirits reflect the One we call our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Silence is observed

Assurance of Pardon:

L: God lets go of the punishment we deserve and gives us mercy in its
place. Willingly, God puts a new spirit into us, the spirit of hope
and joy.
P: We will sing to the One who has delivered us from our sins. We
will praise God with cleansed hearts. Thanks be to God. Amen.

invitation to a holy lent

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Invitation to Lenten Disciplines

Beloved in Christ,
at the time of the Christian Passover,
we celebrate our deliverance from sin and death
through the death and resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Lent is the season of preparation
for this great celebration,
the means by which we renew our life
in the Paschal mystery.
We begin our Lenten journey
by acknowledging our need for repentance,
for in penitance,
we name those things
which damage us and others
for what they really are,
and we open ourselves
to the One whose love knows no boundaries
and whose mercy is demonstrated to us
in the life of Jesus Christ.

By taking an honest look at our lives,
and repenting of our humanness;
by praying quietly
but with full hearts;
by letting go of those things that harm us
and by taking on works of love for others;
by reading and feasting on God’s Word,
we observe a holy Lent,
and prepare ourselves for the passion
of Holy Week
and the joy of Easter.

Let us prepare ourselves
to come to our God.

Submitted by Rev. Thom Shuman, author of Lectionary Liturgies.