liturgy
Traditional Ash Wednesday Service
This is a traditional Ash Wednesday service focused on a penitent and reflective beginning of Lent. It features traditional collects, an invitation to a holy Lent, and a confession structured as a litany. Readings are primarily from the Revised Common Lectionary. Adapted from the Ash Wednesday service in The Book of Common Prayer (1979).
Service order
Prelude Music
Consider requesting that your congregation enter the sanctuary in silence. Dimming the lights can be effective in setting a mood of contemplation. A suitable acapella soloist or choral piece at the beginning of the service can be a powerful way of opening. Versions of the Kyrie or Agnus Dei are especially appropriate (as is Psalm 51, if it will not be sung elsewhere during the service).
Welcome
After greetings and any explanations you wish to add for newcomers or the congregation, continue:
Leader: Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins.
People: His mercy endures forever.
The Collect
Traditionally, the collect is said by the leader. However, it may be said together. You may also consider one of TPW’s Opening Prayers for Ash Wednesday.
Leader: Let us pray.
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.
Readings
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12
Psalm 103 or 51:1-17
2 Corinthians 5:20b–6:10
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Sermon
Consider prefacing your sermon with one of TPW’s prayers of illumination.
Invitation to a Holy Lent
If your denomination does not have a prescribed text, use or adapt the following:
Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.
I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.
A time of silence is kept while all kneel.
Imposition of Ashes
Leader: 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.
All: Amen.
Invite the congregation to line up for the imposition of ashes.
It is traditional to produce the ashes by collecting palm fronds distributed during the previous year's Palm Sunday service. Burn these to produce the ash used in this service.
Music may be played while the congregation receives the ashes, though silence is potent as a means of promoting reflection and solemnity.
The ashes are imposed with the following words:
Leader: Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Psalm 51 (Miserere)
Say or sing Psalm 51 together. If the psalm is said, consider doing so responsively.
Litany of Penitence
All kneeling, the leader and people say:
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.
Prayer is now responsive. Leader says plain text and people say bold text.
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.
Assurance of Pardon or Absolution
The leader now stands and says one of the following or another suitable assurance of pardon.
Assurance of Pardon
Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life. Amen.
Absolution
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.
Following Either Assurance of Pardon or Absolution
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.
Passing the Peace
Leader: The peace of the Lord be always with you.
People: And also with you.
The people greet one another and pass the peace.
The Lord’s Supper
If the Lord’s Supper will be observed, the offertory will usually begin here.
Closing
The service may be closed with a variety of songs or prayers. Excellent prayers include:
Benediction
Consider sending your congregation forth with one of TPW’s benedictions or the following:
Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely
more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from
generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus
for ever and ever. Amen.