Lectionary readings (Click the links to see the readings):
Isaiah 52.13-53.12 | Psalm 22 | 1 Corinthians 1.18-31 or Hebrews 10.1 6-25 | John 18.1-19.42

With sorrow and true repentance

Forgive me, Lord Jesus, for the things I have done that make me feel uncomfortable in your presence. All the front, that I polish so carefully for people to see, does not deceive you. For you know every thought that has left its shadow on my memory. You have marked every motive that curdled something sweet within me.

I acknowledge, with sorrow and true repentance, that
I have desired that which I should not have;
I have toyed with what I knew was not for me;
I have been preoccupied with self-interest;
I have invited unclean thoughts into my mind and entertained them as honoured guests;
my ears have often been deaf to your whisper;
my eyes have been often blind to the signs of your guidance.

Make me willing to be changed, even though it requires surgery of the soul, and the therapy of discipline. Make my heart warm and soft, that I may receive and accept now the blessing of your forgiveness, the benediction of your "depart in peace … and sin no more." In Jesus’ name.

Cleanse me, O God

Father, over and over again I have fallen into the same temptations. It does seem as if I'm slow to learn your ways and your laws. I blush to recall my vows to you: never again to do what I have just come from doing, not again to stain myself in the same mud holes.

Yet our Lord, stained as I am, and conscious of my own weakness, I have no choice but to pick myself up again, to ask you to forgive me once more and make me clean again. I thank you, O Lord Jesus, for the glory of the Gospel of the Second Chance. I would claim from you that chance to begin all over again.

You have heard my prayer of confession. Now I claim your promise to forgive me and to cleanse me. From this moment I accept that forgiveness and that cleansing by faith, because I believe that your promise is the "word of a Gentleman of the most strict and sacred honour."

And now I ask for your Spirit to come into me like a cool fresh air, to revitalise me, to shock me into a new discipleship, to invigorate me for a new life in Christ Jesus, my Lord.

—The Prayers of Peter Marshall, edited by Catherine Marshall. London: Peter Davies, 1955.

"It is finished."

J.S. Bach. O hilf, Christe, Gottes Sohn [O help, Christ, O Son of God]; chorale no. 10 from the St. John Passion (BWV 245, 1724). The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists, dir. John Eliot Gardiner.