The full list of prayers for Ash Wednesday Masses can be found here at the Chant Cafe. However, I just wanted to highlight one change we will see in the liturgy come next year’s Ash Wednesday Masses:
BLESSING AND DISTRIBUTION OF ASHES
Current
Dear friends in Christ,
let us ask our Father
to bless these ashes
which we will use
as the market of our repentance.Forthcoming
Dear brethren (brothers and sisters), let us humbly ask God our Father
that he be pleased to bless with the abundance of his grace
these ashes, which we will put on our heads in penitence.
O God, who are moved by acts of humility
and respond with forgiveness to works of penance,
lend your merciful ear to our prayers
and in your kindness pour out the grace of your blessing
on your servants who are marked with these ashes,
that, as they follow the Lenten observances,
they may be worthy to come with minds made pure
to celebrant the Paschal Mystery of your Son.
We go from five lines to a paragraph. Something tells me that the full paragraph communicates more adroitly the theology behind the prayer.
Tags: Liturgy, Orthodoxy at Work
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