Ash Wednesday

Compline

(Prayer at the Close of the Day)

✠ Ash Wednesday ✠

FEBRUARY 17, A. D. 2021

Dear brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ, on this day the Church begins a holy season of prayerful and penitential reflection. Our attention is especially directed to the holy sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

From ancient times the season of Lent has been kept as a time of special devotion, self-denial, and humble repentance born of a faithful heart that dwells confidently on God’s Word and draws from it life and hope.

Let us pray that our dear Father in heaven, for the sake of his beloved Son and in the power of his Holy Spirit, might richly bless this Lententide for us so that we may come to Easter with glad hearts and keep the feast in sincerity and truth.

Prelude

Versicles

The Lord almighty grant us a quiet night and peace at the last.

Amen.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,

To sing praise to Your name, O Most High;

To herald Your love in the morning,

Your truth at the close of the day.

Confession

Let us confess our sins in the presence of God and of one another.

(silence for self-examination)

Holy and gracious God, I confess that I have sinned against You this day. Some of my sin I know—the thoughts and words and deeds of which I am ashamed—but some is known only to You. In the name of Jesus Christ I ask forgiveness. Deliver and restore me that I may rest in peace.

By the mercy of God we are redeemed by Jesus Christ, and in Him we are forgiven. We rest now in His peace and rise in the morning to serve Him. Amen.

Psalmody

Psalm 51:1-3, 6-12, 17:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit;

as it was in the beginning,

is now and will be forever. Amen.

Readings: Joel 2:12-19; 2 Corinthians 5:20b—6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

(after each reading)

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Responsory

Into Your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

Into Your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

You have redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth.

Into Your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

Into Your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

Homily

Hymn

Litany for Ash Wednesday

O Lord,

Have mercy.

O Christ,

Have mercy.

O Lord,

Have mercy.

O Christ,

Hear us.

God the Father, in heaven,

Have mercy.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world,

Have mercy.

God the Holy Spirit,

Have mercy.

Be gracious to us.

Spare us, good Lord.

Be gracious to us.

Help us, good Lord.

By the mystery of your holy Incarnation; by your holy Nativity; by your baptism, fasting and temptation; by your agony and bloody sweat; by your cross and Passion; by your precious death and burial; by your glorious Resurrection and Ascension; and by the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter;

Help us, good Lord.

In all time of our tribulation; in all time of our prosperity; in the hour of death; and in the day of judgement:

Help us, good Lord.

We poor sinners, implore you

To hear us, good Lord.

To prosper the preaching of your Word; to bless our prayer and meditation; to strengthen and preserve us in the true faith; to give heart to our sorrow and strength to our repentance:

We implore you to hear us, good Lord.

To draw all to yourself; to bless those who are instructed in the faith; to watch over and console the poor, the sick, the distressed, the lonely, the forsaken, the abandoned, and all who stand in need of our prayers; to give abundant blessing to all works of mercy; and to have mercy on us all:

We implore you to hear us, good Lord.

To turn our hearts to you; to turn the hearts of our enemies, persecutors and slanderers; and graciously to hear our prayers:

We implore you to hear us, good Lord.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,

We implore you to hear us.

Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,

Have mercy.

Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,

Have mercy.

Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,

Grant us your peace.

O Christ,

Hear us.

O Lord,

Have mercy.

O Christ,

Have mercy.

O Lord,

Have mercy. Amen.

O God you desire not the death of sinners, but rather that they turn from their wickedness and live. We implore you to have compassion on the frailty of our mortal nature, for we acknowledge that we are dust and to dust we shall return. Mercifully pardon our sins that we may obtain the promises you have laid up for those who are repentant; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

Lord's Prayer

Our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name,

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread;

and forgive us our trespasses

as we forgive those who trespass against us;

and lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine in the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Nunc Dimittis

Guide us waking, O Lord,

and guard us sleeping

that awake we may watch with Christ

and asleep we may rest in peace.

Lord, now You let Your servant go in peace;

Your word has been fulfilled.

My own eyes have seen the salvation

which You have prepared in the sight of every people:

a light to reveal You to the nations

and the glory of Your people Israel.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit;

as it was in the beginning,

is now and will be forever. Amen.

Guide us waking, O Lord,

and guard us sleeping

that awake we may watch with Christ

and asleep we may rest in peace.

Blessing

The almighty and merciful Lord, the Father, the ✠ Son, and the Holy Spirit, bless us and keep us.

Amen.

✠ ✠ ✠

Compline from Lutheran Service Book (altered). Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV®Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.