The Readings & Collect for Ash Wednesday

(from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer – this page with all the readings can be found here)

Joel 2:1-2,12-17
or Isaiah 58:1-12
2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Matthew 6:1-6,16-21
Psalm 103 or 103:8-14

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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There is also this prayer during the Ash Wednesday service:

Almighty God, you have created me out of the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be to me a sign of my mortality and penitence, that I may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life; through Jesus Christ my Savior. Amen

Ash Wednesday Prayers: Turn to us O Lord, and we shall be turned

An Excerpt of the Prayers from the 1928 BCP Pentitential Office for Ash Wednesday

O Lord, we beseech thee, mercifully hear our prayers, and spare all those who confess their sins unto thee; that they, whose consciences by sin are accused, by thy merciful pardon may be absolved; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

O Most mighty God, and merciful Father, who hast compassion upon all men, and who wouldest not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his sin, and be saved; Mercifully forgive us our trespasses; receive and comfort us, who are grieved and wearied with the burden of our sins. Thy property is always to have mercy; to thee only it appertaineth to forgive sins. Spare us therefore, good Lord, spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed; enter not into judgment with thy servants; but so turn thine anger from us, who meekly acknowledge our transgressions, and truly repent us of our faults, and so make haste to help us in this world, that we may ever live with thee in the world to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Then shall the People say this that followeth, after the Minister.

Turn thou us, O good Lord, and so shall we be turned. Be favourable, O Lord, Be favourable to thy people, Who turn to thee in weeping, fasting, and praying. For thou art a merciful God, Full of compassion, Long-suffering, and of great pity. Thou sparest when we deserve punishment, And in thy wrath thinkest upon mercy. Spare thy people, good Lord, spare them, And let not thine heritage be brought to confusion. Hear us, O Lord, for thy mercy is great, And after the multitude of thy mercies look upon us; Through the merits and mediation of thy blessed Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Ash Wednesday Links and Resources – updated

UPDATE FOR 2010:  See also our Ash Wednesday Index, and our new Ash Wednesday category of all the Ash Wednesday-related entries on the blog.

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Note:  Much of this entry comes from our archives – from 2006 – but I’ve updated it.  Many of the links are to archived Lent & Beyond entries at the internet archive site.  I have tried to check all the primary links to make sure they work.  They should all be fine, though sometimes a bit balky.  Sometimes however, the secondary links on an archived page might not open because they try to point to an archive of the secondary site that might not exist.  Try to delete the webarchive portion of any secondary link and you’ll likely get to the site.

For example, on one of the archived pages below, there is a link to a longer version of St. John Chrysostom’s homily on fasting.   The archived link looks like this

http://web.archive.org/web/20070429110514/http://www.cin.org/chrystat.html

But it doesn’t work.  You need instead to go to the original source, the portion of the link I’ve highlighted in bold: http://www.cin.org/chrystat.html

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I. Here are links to Ash Wednesday resources I posted in 2004:
1928 Penitential Office
St. John Chrysostom on Fasting
Peter Toon: Outward vs. Inward Fasting
An Exhortation from Bp. Ackerman re: Lent (for this entry you need to scroll down the archive page, there is no archive of this specific entry, only the page for the last week of Feb. 2004)

II. Lenten Resources and Meditations (2005):
Amy Welborn: Reflections on sacrifice during Lent
“Prayer knocks at the door, fasting obtains, mercy receives” (St. Peter Chrysologus)
The Rev. Dr. Louis Tarsitano “Repenting” Ash Wed. 2000 Sermon [link updated Feb 2006]
Augustine on fasting and cleansing the heart [link updated Feb 2006]
The Rev. Matt Kennedy “What to give up for Lent?” [cached version]

1979 ECUSA Ash Wednesday Liturgy

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III.  Ash Wednesday LINKS — 2006

The Origins of Ash Wednesday
Fasting During Lent in the Anglican Tradition, an essay by the Rev. Skip Burzumato, St. Andrew’s Savannah
An extended prayer of confession – based on the Decalogue (I posted the link to this a few days ago, but it’s worth a repeat here)

From 2004, surprised I have forgotten to link this sooner: David Mills (Touchstone) “The Dust of Adam”

DON’T MISS THIS: “All About Ash Wednesday“ — from Churchyear.net a great resource!

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NEWLY ADDED ASH WEDNESDAY LINKS (covering posts from 2007 – 2009)

“Seek the Lord and Live,” Karen B’s Ash Wednesday Devotional from the L&B Anglican Bloggers’ Lent Series

Ash Wednesday Resources at Lectionary Central

Ash Wednesday Resources and Prayers from ChurchYear.Net

Ashes, an excellent Ash Wednesday meditation found at Pat McDonough’s faith and family blog.

Two Ash Wednesday Prayers

Prayers for Zimbabwe, as requested by the Anglican Primates

Why I Fast, A video by Frederica Mathewes-Green (the video is here)

Fr. Stephen Freeman on “the Difficulty of Lent” (original is here)

Prayer for a Holy Lent

Scriptures on the theme of Ash Wednesday (click on the link “show” next to the Ash Wednesday title)

From our Archives: Seek the Lord and Live, an Ash Wednesday Devotional

This was part of our 2006 Anglican Bloggers Lenten Devotional series.

Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Karen B: Seek the Lord and Live (Ash Wednesday Devotional)

Filed under: Meditations & Devotions, Lent 2006, Anglican Bloggers Lenten Devotionals, Karen B. — Karen B. @ 4:39 am

This meditation for Ash Wednesday is the second entry in the Anglican Bloggers Lenten Collaboration series of daily devotionals that will be posted on Lent & Beyond throughout Lent. Most entries will be by guest bloggers, but today’s entry is by Lent & Beyond coordinator Karen B.
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Ash Wednesday Daily Office Readings:
Psalm 32, Psalm 143
Amos 5:6-15, Heb 12:1-14 , Luke 18:9-14

Seek the LORD and live…

Those are the opening words of the OT daily office reading from Amos for today, Ash Wednesday (ECUSA 1979 lectionary). I find it interesting that we have a call to choose life on a day when the liturgy during the imposition of ashes reminds us of our mortality:

Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

and: Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

The theme of finding life through submission and obedience to in the Lord continues in the NT lesson from Hebrews 12, in verse 9:

Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!

Do we truly believe that in Christ is life, and that to live we must submit to our heavenly Father?

I don’t just mean this in terms of salvation and eternal life and the debates about apologetics, and the uniqueness of Christ in which we so often get caught up. I am asking myself this question today and challenging each of us to ask it of ourselves daily throughout Lent. Is Christ our life? Are we willing to submit our wills and desires to God? To choose to do what pleases Him? Do we believe that the joy, life and freedom He offers, that we find in yielding to and obeying Him is better, more satisfying than the empty pleasures of this world?

Are we willing to follow Moses’ example as set forth in Hebrews 11?

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. (Heb 11:24-26, NIV)

Moses made an incredible choice. He gave up a lavish privileged life in the palaces of Egypt as the “son” of Pharaoh’s daughter in order that he might, as a Jew, inherit all God had promised to His people. However, don’t forget, the Jews were slaves in Egypt. Moses appeared to exchange riches and royalty for poverty and slavery. Yet by faith, he understood that he was making the better choice, that what Christ offered him was of greater value than all the astonishing wealth of Egypt at the height of the pharaonic period. Moses turned away from the pleasures of sin and chose the promises of God, he chose life.

Paul too chose life and could testify “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Many of you reading this know that I spend much of my time in Christian ministry overseas. I routinely find that it is a lot easier for me to live consistently as a Christian when I’m abroad  because everything in my outward circumstances reminds me of the choice I’ve made to follow Christ. It’s why I left the US and have come to live in a foreign land. My whole life in my adopted country is centered upon that choice.

It’s often a lot harder to be conscious of that choice we’ve made to follow Christ in our comfortable lives in N. America or the West. There are so many distractions that can deaden our souls, dull our hunger for the Lord. We can be tempted to chase after many pursuits that can provide temporary enjoyment but do nothing to enliven us spiritually and deepen our life in Christ. We can forget that Christ is our life.

Lent is a call to enter into life, to enter more deeply into Christ. We are exhorted today “Seek the Lord and live…!” “Submit to the Father and live!”

But such submission requires trust. We need to believe that the Lord is good, that He is loving in all He does. It is the knowledge of the Lord’s love for us that helps us persevere in our struggle against sin (Heb. 12:4-6). May we find grace to daily make the choice to submit to the Lord, even though it requires humility and confession, and means being corrected and disciplined. May the Lord help us to believe that the His discipline is a sign of love. May we trust the Lord’s goodness and believe that the training and refining He wants to work in our lives this Lent is for good, to bring about an abundant harvest of peace and righteousness in our lives.

O GOD, whose nature and property is ever to have mercy and to forgive; Receive our humble petitions; and though we be tied and bound with the chain of our sins, yet let the pitifulness of thy great mercy loose us; for the honour of Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Advocate. Amen. — (from the 1928 Penitential Office for Ash Wed.)

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— Karen is a cradle Episcopalian who lives most of the time overseas in a developing country, where she works with a Christian relief and development organization running maternal and child health programs to combat malnutrition and poverty.

An “emergent Catholic” reflects on prayer – “activity” vs. “meditation”

I came across the following reflection on prayer while searching for Lenten devotionals on the blogosphere over the past few days.   It struck a deep chord with me because lately my prayer life has been too much focused on talking AT God rather than quieting my heart and listening to Him through the Word, prayer journalling, and through focused meditation on Scripture (Lectio Divina).

And I have to add (though I may regret doing so in what is meant to be a devotional post), that posting this feels very timely given the controversy brewing over the election of a practicing Buddhist as the Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of Northern Michigan.  I’m seeing a lot of folks defending the Buddhist bishop-elect along the lines of “Zen meditation is a good thing.”  And surely many of us orthodox / evangelical Anglicans may be weak in our appreciation of Christian meditation.  But the question is the object of our meditation:  is it Christ, or is it self?  This reminder of what the Catholic catechism teaches about meditation and prayer is very helpful at such a time I think.

Please forgive the long introduction.  The post below is excellent.  I hope my thoughts here don’t distract from it.

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Emergent Catholic writes, as part of a longer Lenten reflection:

I was taught to pray by Baptists, and while I don’t think they’re entirely wrong in the way that they view prayer; it just seemed very “me”-centric. There seems to be an incredible emphasis on saying things in the right way, and well, just talking to God until you’re blue in the face. When I pray, I don’t want to talk with God, I want to be with God the way that Jesus was when he retreated from the crowds and went out to a secluded place.

Seeking guidance on this issue, I turned to the Catechism of our Church for its teaching on prayer. Here is what I found:

Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith, prompt the conversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ. Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in lectio divina or the rosary. This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayer should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him.

I don’t know about you, but there is no part of this passage that doesn’t challenge me.

It challenges my conceptualization of prayer as activity and places prayer in the realm of meditation. This meditation is not just a passive thinking about Jesus but an engagement of “thought, imagination, emotion and desire.” Have you ever thought of prayer and meditation in this way?

This is organic faith because it connects with our internal faculties. I don’t believe we have much to offer God with our words. If anything, we just create a one-way conversation in which we never stop to listen to God. Yet, in meditation, we silence our voices and begin speaking with our spirit. Every desire, even those that lay dormant within ourselves, can come free when we stop trying to tell God with our voices what our souls can express with greater clarity.

In the process, we gain, not only the “knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus,” but “union with him.”

May the Lord help us all to grow in prayer and true union with Christ this season of Lent.

“Ashes”

In browsing around the blogosphere in recent days for Lent resources and reflections, I’ve read literally dozens of excellent blog entries and meditations. There are a few that particularly stand out in my mind, however. The following meditation for Ash Wednesday on a blog by Pat McDonough is one of them.

Here’s a portion.

A colleague of mine recently recounted the experience of watching his house burn to the ground. The good news is that no one was hurt. The bad news: everything that the family owned was lost. Life as they knew it had been reduced to ashes.

Feelings of helplessness and vulnerability overwhelmed him, but in the months that followed the fire, he was also overwhelmed by the goodness of neighbors and the generosity of friends. “When everything I owned was gone, and I had nothing to call my own but the ashes at my feet, my worldview changed completely. I was less distracted and much more focused on things that I had overlooked prior to that point in my life. I understood, perhaps for the first time, the concept of community, of inter-dependence, and our shared dependence on the grace of God.”

Without knowing it, my colleague summed up the meaning of Ash Wednesday, the arrival of forty days focused on our conversion from sin and solitary thinking to compassion and Christian community. Think back to 9/11. Images of towers tumbling while thousands of people, covered in ash, fought for their lives, evoked a worldwide response of compassion and communal thinking. We knew with certainty that day, that life is much more fragile than we once believed. While this has always been true, we managed to create an illusion for ourselves, one that comforted us and distracted us from what my colleague called our inter-dependence on each other and our shared dependence on God. If steel towers could fall and human lives evaporate in seconds, then the Good News of Jesus Christ is needed more urgently than ever before.

The ashen cross placed on my forehead this year is a reminder that the courage and compassion of Jesus Christ is the only response to our common vulnerability, to the overwhelming sense of helplessness that haunts the third millennium. We have the power to reduce each other to ashes, to extinguish humanity and bring an end to Creation. The anointing of Ash Wednesday draws our vision toward our vulnerability, toward the fragility of life and the need for forgiveness in a world where we are asked to be a sign of Christ to others.

Go read it all, especially to see how she gets to her stunning closing line:

The ashes of Lent are a powerful symbol. May we be worthy to wear them, to carry a cross of ash, a symbol of Christ’s sacrificial love.

Lent Prayers: St. Anselm – Grant us Grace to Desire You with a whole heart

From our Archives, originally posted Feb. 25, 2007

Lent Prayers: St. Anselm
Filed under: Quotable, Saints & Church Fathers, Lent 2007, Lent Prayers — Karen B.

O God our God, grant us grace to desire you with a whole heart, so that desiring you we may seek and find you; and so finding you, may love you; and loving you may hate those sins which separate us from you, for the sake of Jesus Christ.
— St Anselm 1033-1109

Source: Thisischurch.com

Hebrews 12:1-2

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, (Hebrews 12:1a)
      Jesus, thank you for surrounding us with your witnesses: both those we have known in this life and those who have gone before us.

let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, (Hebrews 12:1b)
      Holy Spirit, teach us how to avoid the tricks and traps of Satan to which we are vulnerable.

and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1c)
      Father, let your patience have its perfect work in us so that we do not stumble in the race.

looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, (Hebrews 12:2a)
      Jesus, help us keep our eyes on you. Thank you that we are never out of your sight.

who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, (Hebrews 12:2b)
      Thank you, Jesus, for what you endured for us. Thank you for giving us what we did not deserve: forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with your father. Thank you for not giving us what we do deserve: eternal separation from you.

despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2c)
      Jesus, we live in the hope of the resurrection — that where you have gone, we may follow because of what you endured for us on the cross. Thank you.

      A word received: I AM speaking to my people — pray they will listen. I AM praying for my people — join me in prayer. Wait on me, my people; turn your hearts toward me.

      A word received: Pray for my people. Cry out to me for my people. Speak comfort to them. Speak my words of comfort.

      A word received: Pray for my people in this nation. Pray that the leaders and people of this nation will walk in the ways that truly make for peace.

Ash Wednesday: 32, 143; Jonah 3:1-4:11; Hebrews 12:1-14; Luke 18:9-14
Thursday: 37:1-18; Deuteronomy 7:6-11; Titus 1:1-16; John 1:29-34

      Words received for a Sunday School lesson in March on
            A Community Transformed

“‘Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word,’” (Acts 4:29) A word received: I want you to pray for boldness in speaking my word.

“‘by stretching out your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’” (Acts 4:30) A word received: Ask me to stretch forth my hand. My hand has not grown shortened that it cannot save. (Isaiah 59:1a) Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will answer you for the sake of my son Jesus.

“And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:31) A word received: Pray for my Holy Spirit to come upon you with power so that you can speak my word with boldness as those disciples did.

“Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.” (Acts 4:32) A word received: This is the power of my Holy Spirit at work. As I worked in them, I want to work in you and your congregation.

“And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.” (Acts 4:33) A word received: I want you to be witnesses with great power to my resurrection. I want to live in your hearts so that you will know that I am alive.

“Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold,” (Acts 4:34) A word received: This is the same freedom that the poor widow had when she gave all that she had. I want to set you free from fear as I set these disciples free from fear.

“and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.” (Acts 4:35) A word received: Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. (Malachi 3:10)

Albany Intercessor

Zimbabwe

The primates have called for Ash Wednesday to be a day of prayer and solidarity with the Zimbabwean people. The Anglican Communion Office has released these prayer resources.

Prayer for the People of Zimbabwe

We pray for the suffering people of Zimbabwe,
Forced to live amid deterioration, disease and despair.
We raise our voices on their behalf,
As truth-tellers we want to proclaim ‘This is not good’,
It is not how God desires our world to be.
Loving Father, look after the people of that sad but beautiful land,
Care for the little ones,
Comfort the dying ones,
And into this hour of darkness may the light of your new dawn begin to shine.
Amen

Prayer from All Africa Conference of Churches

Pray for the church in Zimbabwe that it takes its appropriate role in responding to the needs of the people.
Pray for the formation of a government that will ensure delivery of services to the people of Zimbabwe.
Pray that the food supplies reach the dying people in remote Zimbabwe and that there be enough food for everybody.
Pray that medical supplies are made available to all areas of the country and save threatened life.
Pray that there be unity, tolerance, love and mutual respect among all Zimbabweans regardless of political differences.
Pray that the Lord may have mercy on Zimbabwe and give enough rains for a good harvest which will result in the restoration of human dignity, respect and recognition.
Pray that Christians worldwide may be inspired by the Spirit to remain in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe until the end of crisis.
Pray that the faith of Christians in Zimbabwe may be made stronger by their suffering so that in hope they retain their joy and commitment to Christ.
Pray that the resources being extracted from Zimbabwe may benefit the whole nation including the poor rather than individuals.
Pray that God may change the hearts of those who do not put the interests of the people but think of themselves as more important than others.
Pray that the will of God may be done.