From our 2011 Ash Wednesday gatherings: Here are the podcast and the responsive readings (download a PDF here). Take some time over the next few days to read and pray through them again. Also, if you didn't get a devotional book, you can find a PDF download here. You'll have to use it on your computer, but it's better than nothing! Ash Wednesday Prayer of Self-Examination & Repentance --Let us now focus our minds on our sin and the unending mercy of God. God the Father, all: have mercy on us. God the Son, all: have mercy on us. God the Holy Spirit, all: have mercy on us. Trinity of love, all: have mercy on us. all: Most merciful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we confess that we have fallen short of who You’ve created us to be. There have been moments when we have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and strength.  There have been moments when we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.  There have been moments when we have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven. all: Lord, have mercy. There have been moments when we have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ served us. There have been moments when we have not been true to the mind of Christ.  We have grieved your Holy Spirit. all: Lord, have mercy. We confess to you, Lord ... all our past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy and impatience of our lives. all: Lord, have mercy. Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people. all: Lord, have mercy. Our anger at our own frustration and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves. all: Lord, have mercy. Our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts and our dishonesty in daily life and work. all: Lord, have mercy. Our negligence in prayer and worship and our failure to commend the faith that is in us. all: Lord, have mercy. 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. all: Accept our repentance, Lord. For all false judgements, for uncharitable thoughts towards our neighbors and for our prejudice and contempt towards those who differ from us. all: Accept our repentance, Lord. For our waste and pollution of your creation and our lack of concern for those who come after us. all: Accept our repentance, Lord. Restore us, good Lord, and let your anger depart from us. all: Favorably hear us, for your mercy is great. Accomplish in us the work of your salvation, all: that we may show your glory in the world. By the cross and passion of your Son our Lord, all: bring us with all your saints to the joy of his resurrection. Pause for a moment of silent reflection all: There have been moments when we have not loved you with our whole heart. There have been moments when we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. In your mercy forgive what we have been, help us to amend what we are, and direct what we shall be; that we may do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with you, our God. Amen. --Let us now focus on what we are being delivered from From all evil and mischief; any form of pride, vanity, and hypocrisy; from envy, hatred, and malice; and from all evil intent, all: good Lord, deliver us. From sloth, worldliness and love of money; from hardness of heart and contempt for your word and your laws, all: good Lord, deliver us. From sins of body and mind; from the deceits of the world, the flesh and the devil, all: good Lord, deliver us. In all times of sorrow; in all times of joy; in the hour of death, and at the day of judgment, all: good Lord, deliver us. By the mystery of your holy incarnation; by your birth, childhood and obedience; by your baptism, fasting and temptation, all: good Lord, deliver us. By your ministry in word and work; by your mighty acts of power; and by your preaching of the kingdom, all: good Lord, deliver us. By your agony and trial; by your cross and passion; and by your precious death and burial, all: good Lord, deliver us. By your mighty resurrection; by your glorious ascension; and by your sending of the Holy Spirit, all: good Lord, deliver us. Give us true repentance; forgive us our sins of negligence and ignorance and our deliberate sins; and grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit to amend our lives according to your holy word. all: Holy God, holy and strong, holy and immortal, have mercy upon us. Pause for a moment of silent reflection Make our hearts clean, O God; all: and renew a right spirit within us. all: Father eternal, giver of light and grace, we have sinned against you and against our neighbor, in what we have thought, in what we have said and done, through ignorance, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault. We have wounded your love, and marred your image in us. We are sorry and ashamed, and repent of all our sins. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who died for us, forgive us all that is past; and lead us out from darkness to walk as children of light. Amen.