Commontide

For Guidance

O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices; that in your light we may see light, and in your straight path we may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Commontide
Blessing
Blessings

Ash Wednesday — Imposition of Ashes

Almighty God, you have created us from the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be for us a symbol of our mortality and a sign of our penitence, that we may remember that it is by your grace alone that we receive the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Found in the Prayer Book

  • Ash WednesdayLent & Holy Week

Provenance

US BCP, 1979

Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.

This short prayer accompanies the marking of ashes on Ash Wednesday. It's a modern prayer, first appearing in an official Anglican prayer book only in 1979, after nearly 430 years in which English and American Prayer Books had no ash ceremony at all: Archbishop Thomas Cranmer removed the medieval blessing and imposition of ashes when he wrote the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549.