You are welcome to use the following worship service. Please feel free to use all or part of the following. You may substitute other appropriate songs for those suggested below.
This service uses Marty Haugen's beautiful Holden Evening Prayer (Marty Haugen, GIA Music) along with scriptures and litanies added for Ash Wednesday. The page numbers refer to pages in the pew edition of Holden Evening Prayer worship booklet.
If you do use this I just ask that you acknowledge the source as follows:
An Ash Wednesday Liturgy, conceived and written by Lisa Frenz 2003. All Rights Reserved. Used with Permission.
P = Presiding Minister
A = Assisting Minister
C = Congregation
Below are some worship resources which you are welcome to use at no charge. Please just use a copyright acknowledgment "Copyright Lisa Frenz. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission."
Order of Worship
Prelude
Call to Worship: Choir Anthem
A:
Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming, it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations.
"Yet even now," says the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil. Who knows whether he will not turn and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, a cereal offering and a drink offering for the LORD, your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Sanctify the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, "Spare thy people, O LORD, and make not thy heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, `Where is their God?'" Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
P: Come now and receive the sign of your salvation: the cross of life from ashes, a symbol of death
Distribution of Ashes
Meditation: Kyrie (Marty Haugen, GIA Music) (or other appropriate refrain/ostinato suitable for quiet meditation)
During the Meditation the acolyte will bring lighted votive candles to each row. You may hold the votive for a few moments of meditation, then pass it to the person next to you. If desired you may sing the Kyrie with the choir. When the Kyrie ends please blow out the candle and place on the floor under the pew.
Prayer for Forgiveness:
(spoken over music)
P: Out of the depths of our fears, out of the depths of our darkness, we call upon you, O God, to save us. Hear us, now.
A: Forgive me, O God,
C: For I have sinned.
Silence
(spoken over music)
A: Merciful God,
C: I confess that I am broken. I have acted in spite, hurt others by my words and deeds, deliberately done what is wrong.
A: Forgive me, O God,
C: For I have sinned.
Silence
(spoken over music)
A: Merciful God,
C: I confess that I am broken. I have lived for myself and not for others, judged where I should forgive, belittled where I should have built up. O Lord, I have not done justice or walked humbly with you.
A: Forgive me, O God,
C: For I have sinned.
Silence
P: God so loved this world and this people that God sent Christ to suffer and die for all. Accept now that gift of love. Know that you are forgiven, reconciled, accepted, and loved.
C: Amen.
Stand
P: The Lord be with you.
C: And also with you.
Holden Evening Prayer Procession pg. 2 (Marty Haugen, GIA Music)
Holden Evening Prayer Evening Hymn pg. 3
Holden Evening Prayer Evening Thanksgiving pg. 4
Holden Evening Prayer Psalm 141 & Prayer pg. 4-8
Prayers of the People:
The congregation is invited to offer their own.
(A: Lord in you mercy. C: Hear our prayer.)
Sit
Choir Anthem
First Lesson: Isaiah 58:1-12
"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God. `Why have we fasted, and thou seest it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and thou takest no knowledge of it?' Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD? "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am. "If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your desire with good things, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in."
Silence for Meditation
Psalm Song: Create in Me a Clean Heart
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with your free Spirit. Amen
Text: Psalm 51:10-12
Francke, J.A. Freylinghausen, 1670-1739
Silence for Meditation
Second Lesson: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Working together with him, then, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, "At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation." Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in any one's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonment, tumults, labors, watching, hunger; by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
Silence for Meditation
Stand
Holy Gospel: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
"Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven."Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
"And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Sit
Music for Meditation
Message
Stand
Theme Song: Be Thou My Vision
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
naught be all else to me, save that thou art:
thou my best thought by day and by night,
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.
Be thou my wisdom, and thou my true word;
I ever with thee and thou with me, Lord.
Thou my soul's shelter, thou my high tower,
raise thou me heav'nward, O Pow'r of my pow'r.
Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise,
thou mine inheritance, now and always:
thou, and thou only, first in my heart,
great God of heaven, my treasure thou art.
Light of my soul, after victory won,
may I reach heaven's joys, O heaven's Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
still be my vision, O Ruler of all.
Text: Irish 8th-10th cent.; tr. Mary E. Byrne, 1880-1931; vers. Eleanor H. Hull, 1860-1935, alt
Holden Evening Prayer "The Light shines..." & The Annunciation pg. 8-9
Sit
Offering
Stand
Offering Song: Just As I Am, without One Plea
Just as I am, without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou bidd'st me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, and waiting not
to rid my soul of one dark blot,
to thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, though tossed about
with many a conflict, many a doubt,
fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;
sight, riches, healing of the mind,
yea, all I need in thee to find,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, thou wilt receive,
wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
because thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come,
Just as I am; thy love unknown
has broken ev'ry barrier down;
now to be thine, yea, thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Text: Charlotte Elliott, 1789-1871, Music: Woodworth, William B. Bradbury, 1816-1868
Offering Prayer
Holden Evening Prayer Litany and Prayers pg. 10-11
Holden Evening Prayer Final Blessing pg. 12
Share a Sign of Peace
Postlude