A Prayer for Ash Wednesday: May It Be So

As Lent begins, you are invited to journey with Immanuel as we reflect on prayers from the Bible.
Each weekday, we will post a new online reflection written by an Immanuelite based on a Biblical prayer.

Because of our prayer focus, we have entitled these reflections May it Be So: Reflections for a Prayerful Lent. Most often in the Christian tradition, we end our prayers with the word, “amen.” Amen is a transliteration of the Greek word ἀμήν and can be translated as verily, truly, let it be so, or may it be so. Amen is an affirmation for the words spoken and the silences held during prayer. Our hope is that these reflections might also be affirmations of your prayers and silence.

We hope these reflections will serve as both devotionals and conversation starters. You are invited to read and pray along with us during these forty days. And, as you do, we invite you to share your responses, reactions, and questions. Tweet your thoughts, questions, and responses using the hashtag #IPCLent.

Join us as we pray ancient prayers from Scripture, new prayers and questions, and the quiet words of faith and doubt. Join us as we walk with Christ toward his death and resurrection, and toward our own. May it be so.

Here’s a prayer for today:

A Prayer for Ash Wednesday

You mark our faces, Holy Ashen One
With our own systems and shortcomings
Intolerant of our feigned resignation

You mark our faces, Broken and Still-Rising Christ
With the pain
That is our own
And is the world’s

And here is the good news, You say,
Handing us these terrible tools: ashes and truth-telling
To mark and embrace one another
With cross-shaped ashes
With cross-shaped stories
With cruciform lives that might be