*For small gatherings (up 20 people tops) I burn the offered prayers as an offering to God and create the ashes out of the burnings at the beginning of service, let it cool, use only olive oil NO WATER, only construction paper—not shiny paper—and use the remains for the Ashes. I put it out using a lid. This is tricky tho and only advised for people who feel up to it and have appropriate burning containers, fire systems (i.e. don’t set off your smoke alarms), etc. Also you have to clear it with your appropriate councils, board, etc. PLEASE proceed with caution.*
(This can be done as a station as well, just ask someone to read the passage and then to read/recite the Lord’s prayer slowly with the indicated breath pauses—using a printed Lord’s Prayer as their guide, before imposing ashes)
Write a Prayer for God on Heart Valentines, Offer it to God as you enter
When you pray the Lord’s Prayer—do it with lots of Breath pauses a follows
Jesus having taught us to pray, let us mediate on the Holy Spirit and our Breath by reading the Lord’s Prayer slowly and meditatively with the breath pauses as indicated on your paper (in your own mode/style)
Read each line of the Lord’s prayer and then breathe in and out slowly after each line to change the rhythm of the prayer, do this together
Our Father who are in Heaven Hallowed Be Thy Name (Breath in, Breathe Out)
Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done, On Earth as it is in Heaven (Breathe in, Breathe Out)
Give this day our Daily Bread (Breathe in, Breathe Out)
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our Debtors (Breathe In, Breathe Out)
Lead us not into Temptation (Breathe In, Breathe Out)
Deliver us from Evil (Breathe in, Breathe Out)
For Thine is the Kingdom (Breathe in, Breathe Out)
And the Power (Breathe in, Breathe Out)
And the Glory Forever (Breathe in, Breathe Out)
Amen.
Impose Ashes
Feel free to Email KatyandtheWord at Gmail for Text version for easy Copy/Paste Formatting Suggested Donation for Entire Liturgy$75 (you decide what is fair for portions) Receipt Available upon request Please give credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”
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Feel free to Email KatyandtheWord at Gmail for Text version for easy Copy/Paste Formatting Suggested Donation for Entire Liturgy $75 (you decide what is fair for portions) Receipt Available upon request Please give credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”
Venmo @Katy-Stenta (last four 7841), Paypal @KatyStenta, Google Pay Katyandtheword at gmail.com, Cash App $bookkats GoFundMe
(Invitation to write something you want to give to on a valentine/heart: a hope or a burden. This can be written in the order of worship, and dropped in at the end)
Let us gather together in the name of God, Happy are those who confess themselves to God When we keep silent, our bodies feel heavy, we can feel them growing We grown all day long, everything feels heavy upon me, but the weight of it all can be taken by God How beautiful is it, that God knows us and loves us? We are the children of God. Come let us gather close to God.
How wonderful is it to know that there is no competition for Jesus. We will all be fed by him. Let us approach God with the wonder and questions of children. Come let us celebrate the feast of our Lord Jesus and
(Celebrate communion together in your tradition)
As we have all been fed and brought to God with one another, now we can remember that we belong to God in life and in death. We can give our heart to God, and accept the truth, that we are ashes, and to ashes we shall return.
(Imposition of ashes, bringing of hearts valentines or end of service with the passing of the plates)
Feel free to Email KatyandtheWord at Gmail for Text version for easy Copy/Paste Formatting Suggested Donation for Entire Liturgy $75 (you decide what is fair for portions) Receipt Available upon request Please give credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”
God, I’ve been living with ashes in my mouth for over a year now.
And though they are bitter and continue to color every single aspect of my day,
I find that I cannot spit them out. For you have put them there, Lord
Living with death is hard–it’s why family parlors became living rooms
It’s why death was exported from homes and churches to funeral homes
Because it’s tough to see just how fragile humanity is.
Is this like white fragility and male fragility? This mortality thing? Do we ignore it because we, mistakenly, think it makes us stronger?
And then in comes the Christ: an openly weeping male, here comes Christ who sits with the sick and the weak and the disabled and the young and the dying.
Here comes Christ, with dust in his hair and dust on his feet, and ashes in his mouth. Tasting his death for all three years of his ministry.
A taste, he too can’t spit out. A taste that when he tries to draw attention to it, or share it with his disciples, it is rejected.
How did it feel, Jesus, when Mary took a moment to sit with you in the dust, and to wash as much as it as she could off, and then to wipe it clean with her own hair? Mary–whose own brother had died–Mary was the one who was able to sit with you in the dust.
How did it taste, Lord? To drink the wine and eat the bread of resurrection, while the taste of ashes was probably at its’ strongest? Did Peter taste it? Or James or John? Did Matthew and Mark feel the grains upon their tongue? Was Luke aware of its dusty origin? Did Judas recognize the taste of death upon his tongue?
And that night in the garden, when the sand of sleep overpowered the disciples, did you feel the dust in the corner of your eyes? Did you wipe it away, or had you learned to live with it by then?
God, I’ve been living with ashes in my mouth all year, and we are going to enter the season of death, of ashes, of the dirty, dusty path to Jerusalem. And so I pray, that I learn to live and learn how to learn a little more from my own mortality.
I pray that some of the taste of ash is eased with the taste of the living waters of baptism and resurrection.
I’m tired of living with ashes on my tongue, God.
But here we are.
Help me to taste the truth and good news even among the ashes, I pray.
Amen.
Feel free to use/adapt with Credit to Pastor Katy Stenta
Lord, you are the God of Ashes. So that when food tastes like dust upon the tongue, When we feel grubby and soiled, when we feel defeated—you’ve already been there. taking the long walk to death, walking grubby, dry-mouthed and alone. And you invite us, each and every year, to take the journey with you, so that neither of us are alone. You invite us to walk in our own stumbling way, with our own deaths. And you remind us—that we are but dust and to dust we will return. And it’s good to remember and process that fact. Because though we are dust, we are also the beloved siblings of Christ. And so, we will walk the path to Jerusalem together, because it is a journey worth taking. Be with us and we journey we pray, O God. Amen.
For the Complete List of Narrative Lectionary Lent Resources can be found here including a way to receive a doc copy
Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head
God, may we each find a sanctuary space today.
Let us begin the journey to Jerusalem with Jesus Christ today.
The time for Lent and death stretches us before us.
Come let us walk with God today.
Invitation: God will give heed to our sighing, come let us bring our sighs to the Lord.
Prayer of Confession: God our sighs are loud and our cries sound out. We feel trauma of these times. But we know, you long with us for our suffering to end. You do not delight in any wickedness. We confess that we do not know how to journey to Jerusalem with you. We are lost before the journey even begins. Help us to find the way we pray. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: God it is through the abundance of your steadfast love, I will enter your house. It is by the grace of God, that we can be assured of the truth: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.
Prayer of the Day/Dedication: Lord, let us experience the ashes with all that they entail. Let the be the beginning of our relenting: of power, of materialism, of individual achievement over the good of the community. Let us relent to Lent we pray. Amen.
Communion Prayer: Holy Spirit, come and inspire us for this journey. When it feels like forty days in the desert: fortify us with your bread and your cup. Imbue this meal with your Holy Spirit so we can be nourished for the journey. Remind us that when we celebrate Christ’s death, we are also celebrating his life and his resurrection. Give us what we need for this journey through Lent we pray. Amen.
Hymns: In the Garden, Come Thou Fount of Ever Blessing, What Wondrous Love Is This,
Taize: Jesus, Remember Me
For the Complete List of Narrative Lectionary Lent Resources can be found here including a way to receive a doc copy
Jesus went with the disciples teaching them, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.”
And the Disciples Kept silent.
Prayer of Confession: Lord we confess that we do not understand, fully, why it is you had to die. We do not understand why you were betrayed by human hands, and we do not understand how it is you rose again. But we do know while we kept silent our bodies wasted away and we groaned all day long.
Taize Option: Lord here my Prayer, Hymn Option: What Wondrous Love is This v. 1
Help us to live with our lacks and to lean into why you came: to teach, to heal, to die and to forgive our sins. Help us live fully with who we are.
(Write down what Jesus has taught you, who you are, what you want to hang onto)
Taize Option: Bless the Lord My Soul Hymn Option: What Wondrous Love is This v 2.
And let us once again confess our full selves to you so they may once again be forgiven.
Writing down Confession of sin on another piece of paper
Taize Option: Jesus Remember Me Hymn Option: What Wondrous Love is This v. 3
(Collect to trash, burn, rip up)
Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Selah
While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
Selah
Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’, and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Selah
Let us know the truth, as short and imperfect as life is. Remember that you are always and forgiven. Thanks be to God.
Holy Communion
Ministry, is about life, which means that there is seldom a “normal week” in the church. The best of ministry is open and adaptable, because Life is Relentless. The basement pipe leaks, then a member is ill and dies, then the governing body is borrowing your building for a meeting, then your board member steps down. This is church, its imperfect, because its alive. Its real, because it reflects real life, its about the imperfections and love in the midst of the daily-ness.
Relentless, means “unmerciful” and “heartless” and “unforgiving” Life is indeed relentless.
Lent, then is the season of the opposite.
Its the season of “have mercy on me O God” the season of God’s “steadfast love” the season of “abundant mercy.” Its the season of pause and reflection. Its the wait and see, its the celebration of the journey.
And I am aching for this season. The restoration of Joy, because only God can provide Joy in this time of weary sin. Only God can sustain a spirit of willingness.
Good thing you like broken spirits, God, cause thats what I got. Brokenness and Hope.
A broad number of prayers from a variety of pastors/denominations. All variations of theology and kinds of prayers were accepted to show the vast richness of God’s work.
These prayers are meant for personal spiritual practice or for congregations who follow the narrative lectionary.
They include a Call to Worship/Opening Prayer, Prayer of Confession, Assurance of Pardon, Communion Prayer, Prayer of Dedication/Offering and Some are Paired Psalm-Prayer Station Guide by Rev. Shea Zellweger
Feel free to use/edit. Credit to the original author (i.e. based on prayer written by XXX) appreciated.
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