Commontide

For the Acceptance of Prayer

O Lord our God, accept the fervent prayers of your people; in the multitude of your mercies, look with compassion upon us and all who turn to you for help; for you are gracious, O lover of souls, and to you we give glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.

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Commontide
Blessing
Prayers

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.