Confession and ashing

Have mercy on me now my God

Let us pray together for God’s mercy

God our Father and Mother
have mercy on us
God the Son
have mercy on us
God the Holy Spirit
hhave mercy on us
Holy, blessed and glorious Trinity
have mercy on us
From all evil and mischief;
from pride, vanity and hypocisy;
from envy, hatred and malice;
and from all evil intent
Good Lord, deliver us
From laziness, worldliness and love of money
from hardenss of heart
and contempt for your word and your laws
Good Lord, deliver us
From sins of body and mind;
from the deceits of the world, the flesh and the devil
Good Lord, deliver us
From famine and disaster;
from violence, murder and dying unprepared
Good Lord, deliver us
In all times of sorrow; in all times of joy
in the hour of death and at the day of judgement
Good Lord, deliver us
By the mystery of your holy incarnation,
by your birth, childhood and obedience;
by your baptism, fasting and temptation
Good Lord, deliver us
By your ministry in word and work;
by your mighty acts of power
and by your preaching of the kingdom
Good Lord, deliver us
By your agony and trial;
By your cross and passion;
And by your precious death and burial,
Good Lord, deliver us
By your mighty resurrection;
by your glorious ascension
and by the sending of your Holy Spirit
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
Holy God
holy and strong
holy and immortal
have mercy upon us.

We now move onto marking with ashes. In this ancient practice of the church, the sign of the cross is marked with ash on our foreheads. The ash is a sign of sin, of the things in our human experience that are burnt out and wasted, a reminder of our own mortality. The cross is a sign of the seriousness of God’s struggle with all that threatens life and a reminder that we are journeying towards Good Friday.

If you want to receive this sign, someone in your group can mark you with ashes and say this:

Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.
Turn away from your sins and be faithful to Christ.