Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. I’ll join with other parishioners for Holy Eucharist with the Imposition of Ashes. The priest will smudge the sign of the cross on each of our foreheads and remind us, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” 

We will pray the Litany of Penitence.

We will admit out loud, to God, “to one another, and to the whole communion of saints in Heaven and on earth” our offenses.

We will remind ourselves that we have broken hearts and fractured relationships by what we have “done and left undone.” We will remind ourselves that we have harbored thoughts, spoken words, and taken action for our own self-interest.

We will ask forgiveness for…

…our past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of our lives. …

Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people, …

Our anger at our own frustration, and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves, …

Our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty, …

For all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors, and for our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us, …

For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us, …

BCP, “Litany of Penitence,” pp. 267-268.

The sins are many.

Our faults are too many to bear on our own. The weight crushes us. So we will say the words together and shore each other up as we acknowledge our guilt and claim our hope.

We will be a gathering of the trying-to-be-faithful on a day that marks the path to grace.

Yes, we fail. We sin. We hurt each other. We even do unspeakable things. But God, in Her and His boundless mercy, loves us and pours out grace and mercy upon us.

Thanks be to God.