I (Morgan+) remember attending my first Anglican Ash Wednesday about 11 years ago. I was struck by comprehensiveness of the prayers in the litany for different areas of our life. As we enter into Lent 2025, I want to encourage us to keep our rhythms of daily prayer using the Book of Common Prayer. Let’s take time to wonder with Jesus about what we’re reading. If you’d like extra reading this Lent, I’m happy to provide recommendations. I’ll be reading Lent: the Season of Repentance and Renewal alongside Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies. My hope is that we engage well in the world by engaging well with Christ in rightly ordering our own interior life first. The advantage of reading these books together is that it creates some good structure for the conversations that people would love to have, but may not know how to enter into. I want to encourage us this Lent to return often to the beautiful and challenging Confession and Litany of Penitence that we pray during Ash Wednesday.

Here is the Confession and Litany of Penitence from the 2019 Book of Common Prayer:

CONFESSION AND LITANY OF PENITENCE

The Deacon or other person appointed says

Let us humbly confess our sins to Almighty God.

Silence may follow. The Officiant and People together, all kneeling, pray

Most holy and merciful Father,

we confess to you, and to one another,

and to the whole communion of saints

in heaven and on earth,

that we have sinned, through our own fault,

in thought, word, and deed;

by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and strength.

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

We have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven.

We have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ served us.

We have not been true to the mind of Christ.

We have grieved your Holy Spirit.

 

Reader    Lord, have mercy upon us:

People    For we have sinned against you.

 

The Reader alone continues, and the People respond

For all our unfaithfulness and disobedience; for the pride, vanity, and hypocrisy of our lives;

Lord, have mercy upon us:

 

People    For we have sinned against you.

 

For our self-pity and impatience, and our envy of those we think more fortunate than ourselves;

Lord, have mercy upon us:

 

People    For we have sinned against you.

 

For our unrighteous anger, bitterness, and resentment; for all lies, gossip, and slander against our neighbors;

Lord, have mercy upon us:

 

People    For we have sinned against you.

 

For our sexual impurity, our exploitation of other people, and our failure to give of ourselves in love;

Lord, have mercy upon us:

 

People    For we have sinned against you.

 

For our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our intemperate pursuit of worldly goods and comforts;

Lord, have mercy upon us:

 

People    For we have sinned against you.

 

For our dishonesty in daily life and work, our ingratitude for your gifts, and our failure to heed your call.

Lord, have mercy upon us:

 

People    For we have sinned against you.

 

For our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty;

Lord, have mercy upon us:

 

People    For we have sinned against you.

 

For our wastefulness and misuse of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us;

Lord, have mercy upon us:

 

People    For we have sinned against you.

 

For all false judgments, for prejudice and contempt of others, and for all uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors;

Lord, have mercy upon us:

 

People    For we have sinned against you.

 

For our negligence in prayer and worship; for our presumption and abuse of your means of grace;

Lord, have mercy upon us:

 

People    For we have sinned against you.

 

For seeking the praise of others rather than the approval of God;

Lord, have mercy upon us:

 

People    For we have sinned against you.

 

For our failure to commend the faith that is in us;

Lord, have mercy upon us:

 

People    For we have sinned against you.

All then pray

Show favor to your people, O Lord, who turn to you in weeping, fasting, and prayer. For you are a merciful God, full of compassion, long-suffering, and abounding in steadfast love. You spare when we deserve punishment, and in your wrath you remember mercy. Spare your people, good Lord, spare us; in the multitude of your mercies, look upon us and forgive us; through the merits and mediation of your blessed Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.