Ash Wednesday

Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, O God, in your enduring goodness:
according to the fullness of your compassion blot out my offences.

2 Wash me thoroughly from my wickedness:
and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I acknowledge my rebellion:
and my sin is ever before me.

4 Against you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your eyes:
so you will be just in your sentence and blameless in your judging.

"Traditionally the season has been one in which candidates prepared for baptism through prayer, fasting, and acts of mercy. This year, we might all constructively pray for greater awareness and understanding of the strangers around us, particularly those strangers whom we are not yet ready or able to call friends. That awareness can only come with our own greater investment in discovering the image of God in those strangers. It will require an attitude of humility, recognizing that we can not possibly know the fullness of God if we are unable to recognize his hand at work in unlikely persons or contexts. We might constructively fast from a desire to make assumptions about the motives of those strangers not yet become friends."—Katharine Jefferts Schori.

a footnote from a chorister who is getting old
Psalm 51

Have mercy upon me O God, after thy great goodness:
according to the multitude of thy mercies, do away mine offences.

2 Wash me throughly from my wickedness:
and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I acknowledge my faults:
and my sin is ever before me.

4 Against thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight:
that thou mightest be justified in thy saying, and clear when thou art judged.

(Coverdale version.) Index of Lenten Calendar