An Ash Wednesday Prayer

Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe offers us this Lenten prayer:

We welcome this season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. There is much for which we need to repent. As this Ash Wednesday falls at the end of Black History Month, in the US, we cannot enter into a Holy Lent without acknowledging and repenting of our sin of racism. We repent of our sins of racism in which we have committed, omitted, ignored or minimized. We must repent of our sins of sexism. We must repent of our sins of exclusion. We must repent of our sins of colonialism both past and present.

This is a season of turning.

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have been self-indulgent and negligent. We have judged one another. We have been prejudiced. We have not forgiven as we have been forgiven.

This is a season of forgiving.

As we say in the liturgy, this is a time when those who, because of notorious sins, were separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence, forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. It is a time in which we renew our faith.

This is a season of restoration.

We are created from dust and to dust, we shall return. This is a season of acknowledging our mortality and letting go.

This is a season of letting go.

From God, we are given the generous gift of hope for new life. Life within us, life with one another, life in the body of Christ, life in God’s creation, life forever.

This is a season of life.

We pray. Accept our repentance, our turning. Accomplish in us the work of your salvation so that we may reflect your promise of restoration for a renewed creation.