Ash Wednesday

Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - Ash Wednesday   

worship: noon & 7 pm

 

Joel 2:13 "Return to the Lord, your God, for God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love."

 

            All through Lent in place of the alleluia verse, we sing the verse from Joel 2:13: “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”  Repentance, turn, return – in Hebrew, all these words share a common root: teshuvah, lashuv, shuvah.  Lent is an opportunity to examine, to reflect, and to turn – to turn away from false gods (power, popularity, success?), to turn around and leave behind those things that enslave us (self-doubt, misconceptions, bitterness?) and to return to the arms of a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

 

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Amen

 

• Veil crosses with deep purple cloth or unbleached muslin, a fast for the eyes.