Here’s a prayer of confession for Advent written by Jamie Barnes.
Prayer of Confession
It is easy for us to lose sight of what the birth of Jesus means to this dark and dying world. Let us be reminded that Christ came to free us from our sin and reunite us with our Creator.
Let’s pray:
God of love,
all year long we pursue power and money,
yet you came in weakness, as a child.All season long we want more stuff, more for us,
but you alone offer what is lasting.Through the work of our Lord Jesus,
who comes among us full of grace and truth,
forgive us, heal us, correct us.Then open our lips,that we may sing your praise with the angels,
When we allow darkness to overcome the light,
forgive us, Lord.When we reduce Christmas to plastic and tinsel,
have mercy on us, Father.
When hardness of heart keeps us
from seeing and believing in Your Song,
let your grace fill us, O God. Forgive our doubtand renew our hopes in Christ alone,that we may watch and waitand once more hear the glad story of our Savior,Jesus Christ, the Lord.
In His name we ask, Amen.
For more worship resources for the season of Advent, see this index of Advent Worship Resources, or click on Advent 1, 2, 3, or 4 in the list of “Labels” at the lower right side of the page. For other resources related to confession, click on Confession or words of assurance in the list of “Labels” at the lower right side of the page, or see this Confession & Assurance index.
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(based on John 20:19-31)
Lord God,
you made the hearts of the disciples glad
with the knowledge of the resurrection of Jesus, your Son.
Forgive us because, like them,
we find the truth of Easter so hard to believe;
forgive us that we are so easily downcast, and given to despair;
forgive us that, although we claim to live by the resurrection faith,
we so often appear to believe that suffering is simply a tragedy
and that death is the end;
forgive us that we take so much convincing
of the hope that you give to the world.
(Silence)
Come to us, Lord God, in the power of the risen Christ.
Take away our crippling doubts and fears,
and through your Holy Spirit bring us to life in your service;
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
—from Companion to the Lectionary, Volume 3,
(For more creative worship resources for the Sunday after Easter,
click on “Easter 2” on the “Labels” list at the right.)
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LITANY OF CONFESSION
Confessing is like walking into a dark cave, seeing nothing, hearing nothing –
We do not know what we will find there.
Maybe we will find the bones of things long deadMaybe we will find the living wings of a bat, or the thousand feet of some worm thing.Maybe we will find the silence not at all quiet, but full of unknown rustles.Maybe we will find ourselves,And find old hurts or desires that are long dead,And find the thousand feet of some urge or temptation that could carry us away in a heartbeat.
But it is only in the deepest dark that we can see
The tiny light that is always present, that sliver that comes from an unknown place,That sliver of light that give us hope,That sliver of light that looks a bit like grace. It is only in the stillest silence that we can hear the whisper of mercy.
Let us enter into silence.
SILENT PRAYER
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Friends. Sisters, brothers: hear this good news and see the grace of God:
You are forgiven. You are free to go and live in the light of love.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
CALL TO CONFESSION
As we begin a new year in the shelter of God’s love, let us be truthful about our lives, about our living, and about our limits. Let us offer to God and each other that truth as we pray, first in silence, and then together.
*SILENT CONFESSION
*PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Holy God, Author of life and Source of all hope, Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier: hear our prayer. We know that the blank slate of a new year seems so promising – We haven’t done anything too awful, not yet.And we know that the blank slate of a new year is also an illusion;Time continues, and our lives flow from one day to the next, from one year to the next. In this time, we know we are sometimes remarkable and generous, bearing light to the shadows, and we know we are sometimes full of despair and selfishness, hoarding light and goodness for ourselves.We invite you on our journeys, O God. We seek your presence with us in the darkness and the light,In our remarkable moments and our awful ones.We seek your presence, and bask in your love, through Christ. Amen.
God’s mercy is deeper than the depths of the sea, and God’s grace is wider than the whole of the earth. Trusting in that mercy and that grace, let us make our confession, before God and each other, first in silent prayer.
Holy God, we open our hearts to you this day, and offer the truth of our lives:
The fear that stifles us, The prejudice that blinds us, The ignorance that hobbles us, The doubt that plagues us. Help us, we pray, that we will Find courage in unlikely place, See the world with new and gracious eyes, Move to those places where love is needed, Have faith that you are with us.This we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hear the Good News: we are forgiven! We are set free to go out into the world and be the loving, gracious, hopeful people of God!
Alleluia! Amen.
As God’s beloved children, we are invited to come to our God with the fullness of our lives, to admit our love and our hate, to admit our faith and our fear. Trusting in God’s mercy, let us make our confession, first in silent prayer.
*COMMUNAL PRAYER
Holy and gracious God, At times we feel so frail and fragile, getting blown about by the latest crisis, by bad news, by our own short tempers and failings. You call us to hold fast to what is good, but so often we flounder, unable to find that solid thing that will center us again. Help us, we pray. Help us to see you as our center, and to cling to the good that you create in the world. Help us to set aside all our jealousies and prejudices, all of our betrayals and lies, all that adds to the world’s hurt. Help us to grow even more into Christ’s likeness, that we will bear his love and truth to the world. We pray in his name. Amen.
To come before God with the truth of our lives is itself an act of faith: we trust that the Holy One is interested in us, interested in our minds and hearts and souls. We trust that God’s mercy and grace are intended for us, too. With faith and in trust, let us make our confession to God, first in silent prayer.
Holy God, hear our prayer. Sometimes our lives are a mess, because of choices we have made or because of choices others have made. Sometimes our lives are great, and we’re kind and generous. Sometimes our lives are great and we forget to be to grateful and humble. We trust that in the jumble of all of this, you are present. We trust that you are with us, walking with us when we stray, nudging us back to the right path, slowing us down when we get ahead of you, and waiting for us when we lag behind.
So we thank you, and ask for your forgiveness, and pray that you will stay with us throughout the journey. Amen.
Our hearts are hard, O God –
Soften them with your love. Our hands are clenched, O God –
Open them with your grace. Our feet are planted too firmly, O God –
Invite us to dance with you. Our lives are not our own, we know –
Let us live and move and have our being in you, O God. Amen.
When we seek God’s mercy, we draw close the mystery of faith: love that cannot be undone by our sin. Trusting that God is grace, let us offer to God the truth of our lives, first in silent prayer.
*SILENT PRAYER
*COMMUNAL PRAYER
Holy Lord, God of life, hear our prayer: Forgive us when we follow those paths that do not lead to life, That lead instead to violence, or hate, or fear, Paths that lead to dread and death. Forgive us when we forget that you offer us life, Life that is abundant and eternal, Life that began at the creation of all things. Forgive us, turn us to the right path, and let your love and grace flow over us and the world. We pray in Jesus’ name and for his sake. Amen.
Day or night, it is always the right time to come before God,
For God already knows what lies in our hearts. Let us offer up our hopes yet unmet:
For peace, for reconciliation, for grace. Let us offer up the wrongs we have done:
Our greed, our apathy, our meanness. Let us offer up the good we have left undone:
Forgiving another, offering mercy, choosing compassion. And in silence, let us offer God the whole of our hearts.
For First Sunday in Lent:
INVITATION TO CONFESSION
As we begin the season of Lent, we are invited by God to examine our own spirits, to see what is growing, to see what needs pruning, to see what needs encouragement. Let us come to God with what we see, offering our spirit to the One who loves us. Let us pray, first in silence.
SILENT PRAYER
COMMUNAL PRAYER
Holy God, giver of life and forgiver of sin,We come to you now with hope –Hope that you will always love us,Hope that you will not hold our sin against us,Hope that you will turn us around from what is evil,Toward what is good.Walk with us in this holy season, and help usTo look clearly at our lives and the world,That we may embrace all with love.Through Christ we pray. Amen.
Holy God, we come before You in humility,
For we do not live as we ought. We do not love You with our whole heart and mind and strength. We do not love our neighbor as ourselves. So we pray, in all humility, That You will change our hearts and minds, That You will show us again how to love others the way You love us, That You will put power and courage in our hearts to do your will. This we pray in Jesus’ name and for His sake. Amen.
“Come and see,” You said, and we looked around –
And we saw mountains and oceans and blue skies and sunsets;
We saw daisies and peonies and daphne;
We saw pine martens and elephant seals and puppies.
And we were glad.
“Come and see,” You said, and we looked around –
And we saw luxury and opulence;
We saw trophies and medals;
We saw an abundance of things;
And we paused.
“Come and see,” You said, and we looked around –
And we saw refugees and shrouded bodies;
We saw weapons and blood;
We saw fear and injustice;
And we were afraid.
“Come and see,” You said, and we looked around –
And we saw the comforts of our own home;
We saw the happy faces of friends;
We saw everything that was familiar and safe;
And we saw our failure.
“Come and see,” You said, and we closed our eyes –
And we saw our own minds, so smart yet timid;
We saw our hearts, broken by the weight of the world;
We saw our souls, yearning for You yet still incomplete;
And we gave it all to You.
“Come and see,” You said, and we looked around once more –
And we saw a hand reaching out in forgiveness;
We saw a smile where we expected knit brows;
We saw healing and mercy.
And we accepted your grace. Amen.
INVITATION TO CONFESSION
Friends, let us begin this new year with hearts that have been unburdened, and let us make our confession before God and one another, first in silent prayer.
SILENT PRAYER
COMMUNAL PRAYER
God of stars and angels, God of sheep and lambs, God of abundance and grace: You know us well, better than we know ourselves. You hear us cry “Gloria!” and “Praise!” And you watch us tear things apart with our words and deeds. You hear us say “Thy will be done” and “use me, O God” And you watch us do nothing in response to cries for help. You know us, and you love us, and you forgive. Hear us now say, “Help us to change; turn us around, Make us more loving and courageous and hopeful.” This we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
INVITATION TO CONFESSION
The God to whom we make our confession is the God who loved us so much that God took on mortality, choosing to limit the divine, in order to understand us and be with us. Trusting in that love, let us make our confession, first in silent prayer.
SILENT PRAYER
COMMUNAL PRAYER
Holy God, Lord of love: For not singing when we are joyful; For not shouting to the world the good that you do; For not trusting the love that surrounds us; For not enacting the justice you call us to; For not believing the Good News is meant for all: Forgive us. Encourage us and change us, help us and inspire us, that we, like Mary, will magnify you, and rejoice in God our Savior. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Friends, this Good News is for all the world: Christ was born, lived and died, and rose
again that we would be freed from sin and death. Know that indeed you are forgiven,
and be at peace.
Alleluia! Amen.
INVITATION TO CONFESSION
When Jesus was born, he came to world filled with poverty, and violence, and fear. He lived among people who did not always walk their walk perfectly, which is to say, Jesus was no stranger to sin. Our sin comes as no surprise to him. His love and mercy should come as no surprise to us. Therefore, let us make our confession before God and one another, first in silent prayer.
SILENT PRAYER
COMMUNAL PRAYER
Gracious God, our Wonderful Counselor, the Almighty God, We come to you to confess. We know that sometimes we are happily distracted by parties and twinkling lights, and sometimes we are happily curled up in the solitude and warmth of our homes.
In our distraction, we do not heed the cries of the world.
We turn a blind eye to suffering and need and grief.
Forgive us for that.
Forgive us, and more than that, turn us around to see all your children, with the truth of their lives, that we would set aside our distractions and answer your call to go out, to heal, to help, to proclaim good news and joy. Through Christ we pray. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Friends, hear the Good News: God so loved the world that God sent Jesus to us, not to condemn the world but in order that we might be saved – healed and forgiven – through him. Thanks be to God!
Alleluia! Amen.
In this season of Advent, we are reminded of God’s love for us, shown in the impossible act of God becoming incarnate, taking on human flesh, to reach us in love and save us from our worst abilities. This is the God to whom we pray, to whom we make our confession. Let us then come to God with the truth of our lives, first in silent prayer.
SILENT PRAYER
COMMUNAL PRAYER
In the days that have been, O God, we have walked along crooked paths strewn with our selfishness and greed, our prejudice, and our apathy. We confess that we have hidden from the light, from the light which exposes everything, the love and the hate, the good deeds and the harmful ones.
On this day we admit to you our failings, where we have wandered, when we have not listened. We confess to you our sin.
In the days to come, remind us of your love and grace. Show us your power to transform hearts and minds. Sate us with peace in our souls that we will take peace into this war-weary world. In Christ we pray. Amen.
God who blesses us so abundantly, who gives us so much, also promises us grace and love. Let us trust in the mercy of our Creator as we make our confession, first in silent prayer.
SILENT PRAYER
COMMUNAL PRAYER
Holy God, giver of blessings, we thank you for the mercies we know, and ask your forgiveness when fail to acknowledge you as the source of all good.When we hoard your gifts,When we say, “that’s mine,”When we ignore the bounty around us,When are blind to the good,Forgive us. Help us to share, to see, to live gratefully. Through Christ we pray. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Friends, let us proclaim the Good News:
In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven! Alleluia, amen.
Sin is separation, and we know many separations in our lives. We admit to God the deep chasms between ourselves and our neighbors, between ourselves and God. Relying on God’s love and mercy, then, let us make our confession, first in silent prayer.
*SILENT CONFESSION
*PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Loving and merciful God, you know our hearts and you know our lives. We confess to you that which causes separation, that which causes pain, that which causes distress, and that which breaks down. We confess to you our part in those things. And in humility and hope, we ask for your help to do better, to reconcile, to heal, to soothe, to build up. So may we love you and neighbor, and follow our Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.
INVITATION TO CONFESSION
And so we live our lives imperfectly, for we are flawed. But we are also loved by the God in whose image we were created. Let us remake ourselves toward that image as we make our confession before God and each other, first in silent prayer.
*SILENT CONFESSION
*PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Gracious and loving God, hear our prayer. We know we do not always live as we ought: We turn away from You, from our neighbor, and from our true selves. We know we dim Your light within us, With our pride, our self-righteousness, and our need for control We know that You love us, that you do not abandon us, and that again and again you call us back to You, back to love, back to grace, back to your light. Forgive us, we pray, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
*ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Friends, hear the Good News: the mercy of God is from everlasting to everlasting. Let
us proclaim the Good News:
In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Alleluia! Amen.
All fall short of the glory of God. As we go about our lives, that glory is diminished but no absent. In making our confession, let us remove the dull sheen of what is wrong, and allow the glory to shine through God’s grace. Let us pray, first in silence.
SILENT PRAYER
COMMUNAL PRAYER
Loving and gracious God, you are so patient with us.We run away, and you seek us.We make foolish choices, and you teach us the better way.We hurt you and others, and instead of hurting us back, you forgive us.Help us, we pray; help us reveal your glory and goodness in our living,That we will bear the imprint of Christ throughout the world. Amen.
INVITATION TO CONFESSION
Each week as a community we set aside time to admit our sin. For some, sin is hurting someone else. For others, sin is creating a rift between people. Sin may be our self-induced separation from God. However we understand sin, let us offer to God what lies heavily in our hearts this day, first in silent prayer.
SILENT PRAYER
COMMUNAL PRAYER
O Holy God, we know we have fallen short.We turn our backs when we could embrace.We remain silent when we could speak.We speak when we could listen.We close the door when we could fling it wide open.We judge when we could seek understanding.We cling when we could give.Forgive us, O God, for being so very human at times, and help us to continue to grow into the people you created us to be, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Friends, hear the Good News: the mercy of God is from everlasting to everlasting. In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.
Thanks be to God! Alleluia, amen.
Within the strength of community, in the power of silence, we come before God with the truth of our lives, trusting in the mercy and love of our Creator. Let us offer our confession before God and each other.
Holy God, we know that in so many ways We have run from you, We have ignored your call, We have closed our eyes to your presence, We have disbelieved your mercy, We have disregarded your words, We have belittled ourselves, We have forsaken others.So we ask, once again, for your forgiveness. We ask you to stay with us as we turn away from what is wrong and hurtful to what is bright and life-giving. And hear now our silent prayers.
We cannot flee from God, the psalmist reminds us. If we ascend to the greatest height, or if we dive to the deepest low, still God is with us, surrounding us with love and mercy. We are safe, then, to make our confession in the midst of God’s grace. Let us pray together:
When we are weary, O God, give us bread for the journey.When we are complacent, O God, set a fire in our bellies.When we are frightened, O God, put courage in our hearts and hands.When we are angry, O God, turn our anger into faithful response.When we are bewildered, O God, help us to see and follow You.When we stray, turn us around.When we fail, give us another chance.When we sin, forgive us.And hear our silent prayers.
The apostle Paul once wrote, “I do not do the good I want.” That is the beginning of confession, for Paul and for all of us. Let us come before God with the truth of our lives.
For not loving You with all our heart, O God;
For not loving our neighbor in the same way; For not loving You with our whole soul, O God;
For not loving our neighbor in the same way; For not loving You with our minds, O God;
For not loving our neighbor in the same way; For not loving You with all our strength, O God;
For not loving you in the same way: Forgive us, and show us Your kindness, that we might do the same. Let us offer God our prayers in silence.
On this day which God has made, which God has given to us, we pause. We consider our hearts and hands, the good we have left undone, the harm we have caused, the ways we have been complicit in tearing the fabric of community. On this day which God has made, we are loved and grace awaits us. Let us make our prayer together.
Most High God, hear our prayer. We know there is much that clamors to possess us: power and addiction; false peace and false community; fear and anger. We know that sometimes we say yes to these forces.We know, too, that you are stronger than even hate and fear and prejudice. So we ask for your help. We ask for your healing. We ask that you make us whole, through the love of Jesus. Hear now our silent prayer.
May our confession be not a recitation of all we have done wrong, but a public acknowledgement of what is broken in our lives. As God’s beloved, let us pray together:
O God who gave us life and death, you hold us in your hands. You cradle us in our need, and you push us into growth. We confess to you that all is not well, that we grieve the loss of many things and people. All is not well, and we hurt in part because we cannot make things better for ourselves, for those we love, or for the world. All is not well, and we find it easy to succumb to despair.
And so, O God, we pray for healing, and for strength and courage, and for grace to meet this day and this world. We pray to find you in the midst, and to be cradled by you once again. Hear now our silent prayer.
God is many things to us: Creator, Father, Mother, Judge, Healer, Love, Mystery. We bring our confession to this God, trusting that the fullness of the divine will hear our plea and grant us mercy that makes us whole again. With that trust, let us pray together:
Holy God, we confess to you our pain:
The pain we have inflicted on others, The pain that keeps us awake at night, The pain of stranger across the world whose lives we cannot touch, And the pain of systems unyielding and untouchable.We invite you into our painWe invite you to heal us, and forgive us, To undo what is crushing and wrong, To bring peace and even joy.Hear now our silent confession, offered to you in hope.
Good Friday Confession
Let us come before God, our judge and redeemer.
We bring our humility, our guilt, and our lament. For children are hungry,
And women lug water for miles,
And the old among us are cast away.
When, Lord, did we see you? Those who sleep on the street are ignored,
Those who speak out are silenced,
Those who wage peace are mocked.
When, Lord, did we see you? Violence becomes commonplace,
War is tolerated,
And our families are rent apart.
When, Lord, did we see you? Our souls are shredded by the weight of the world,
And our hands grow limp from inaction.
Our voices are hoarse from cryout out.
We allow the Savior to die.
When, Lord, did we see you? “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”
INVITATION TO CONFESSION
To stand at the foot of the cross, to witness the suffering of an innocent man, is to be humbled in a profound way. Whether we think Jesus died for our sins, or whether we think Jesus died because of the corruption and evil of a few, the truth remains that he died, and we are changed, and we remain unchanged. For those ways in which we remain unchanged by that suffering and sacrifice, let us make our confession.
O Lamb of God, we remain unmoved by your tears, by your slow dying.
We hear the taunts, and pretend our words are always sweet.We watch you forgive, and hoard grace for ourselves.We know you die, and we go on about our usual way.Forgive us for not stopping, for not weeping, for not acknowledging that we allow your children in our time to suffer.Heal our broken, imperfect hearts, that we might love more fully and more wondrously,following You, O Lamb, not into death but into life. Amen.
Let us open our hearts and minds to the truth of our lives, and let us offer that truth to God.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
O God who loves us, hear our prayer. So often we come to you at a loss – at a loss for the right words, the right deeds, the right feelings. We know all is not right, but we cannot say with certainty what is wrong. There are deep divisions between us and others. There are too many who live in poverty and fear. There are too many horrific stories, and not enough hopeful ones. So we pray to you, our Creator and Redeemer, to make things right, and to make us right with you and each other. Turn us around from that which destroys toward that which heals and brings joy. And hear us again, as we offer you our confession in silence.
*SILENT CONFESSION
*ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Friends, let us proclaim the Good News:
In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven! Let us go out into the world as people made new by God.
Amen.
*INVITATION TO CONFESSION
Let us open our hearts and minds to the truth of our lives, and let us offer that truth to God.
*SILENT CONFESSION
* PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Forgive us, O God, when we limit you –
When we remake you in our image,
When we claim our causes as your own,
When we box you in,
And explain you away,
And in our attempts at understanding, whittle away all mystery.
Forgive us for our human impulses, and change us:
Awaken us to your blinding glory,
Confound us by your love,
Shower us with grace so that we will be made new,
Recreated in your image,
Grateful for all that we cannot know.
In the name of Christ, who brought us closer to you, we pray. Amen.
*ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Friends, let us proclaim the Good News:
In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven! Let us go out into the world as people made new by God.
Alleluia! Amen.
*INVITATION TO CONFESSION AND COMMUNAL PRAYER
Our lives are often marked by merriment, but beneath that looms the Other: our worry; our sorrow; our shame, our guilt, our grief. Let us hand over all that to the One who offers us not condemnation but joy.
In this moment as my mind wanders:
God, redirect my thoughts to you. In this week as I walk your path and sometimes stumble,
God, make your way clear. In our communities where we have sometimes remained silent,
God, open our lips to speak for justice. In this world where there is much hurt, hurt that we sometimes cause,
God, make us agents of healing. In this time when there is much sorrow and grief,
God, send us out to be ambassadors of hope and joy. In these moments of silence,
God, hear our prayers.
CALLING TO UNBURDEN
Our play is marked by merriment, but beneath that looms the Other: our worry; our sorrow; our shame, our guilt, our grief. Let us surrender all that to the One who loves us beyond measure, the One who heals us, the One who makes us whole.
Silent Prayer
Prayer
I have failed. I have gloated. I have hated. I have ignored. I have raged. I have hoarded. I have judged. I have turned away.I am sorry.I am exhausted.I am done.
Fix me, heal me, break-and-remake-me, hold me, comfort me, nurture me, revive me, resuscitate me, bring me back from death.
I give you the last word, O God. Will it be ‘grace’? Will it be ‘free’? Will it be ‘love’?
Words of Assurance
My friends, God is not done with us, not by a long shot. You are more beloved than you can ever know, and God is working in you and in the world beyond our wildest imagining. The beginning of all that is forgiveness. So know that you are indeed forgiven, and be at peace. Amen.
Amen.
INVITATION TO CONFESSION
In this season of short days and long nights, we may find ourselves restless in the evening, too much on our minds and hearts. Let us come before our God with that which lies heavily in our hearts.
SILENT CONFESSION
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
O God, our God, Creator of the stars of night,Forgive us when we forget that darkness and light go hand-in-hand; That the suffering of another is our suffering, That the joy we know is not to be hoarded but shared. That just as light warms and energizes us, So darkness calms us and gives us rest. That there are those who still live in shadows of fear and grief That we are called to be with them in the dark, and to bring light.We thank you for day and night, for darkness and light, for the strife and the joy, and for making us whole. Amen.
*INVITATION TO CONFESSION AND RESPONSIVE PRAYER
What is confession?
An unburdening, a letting go, Truth telling.
To whom do we confess? We confess to the One we call God, our Creator, our Redeemer,
We confess to the One who loves us. What do we confess this day?
We confess the wrong we have done and the hurt we have caused. We confess the good we have not done, and the sin we have not claimed.
We confess that we live more like ourselves and less like Christ. Let us now make our silent confession.
INVITATION TO CONFESSION AND COMMUNAL PRAYER
Let us come before God with the whole of our lives, the good, the bad, and the holy. Let us pray together:
Holy God, at times we have delusions of grandeur, and we forgot to see what is small – the falling leaf that holds the beauty of creation; the kind word that is a testament to grace; the child who is vital not only for the future but for the present. Help us to remember our place in this world you made, to give thanks for things great and small, to be humble and hopeful. And hear us now as in silence we open our heart to you.
SILENT PRAYER
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Friends, this is the Good News:
In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven! And we are not only forgiven, we are also freed.
Let us greet with world as people made new in Christ.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Holy God, we can be so full of fear at times – afraid of the unknown; afraid of what is beyond our control; afraid of what is strange to us. And we know that fear stops us in our tracks, hinders our action, and gives excuse for not doing what you call us to do and what you empower us to do. So we pray that you will give us courage, O God. Give us strong hearts and open hands, that we might set aside our fear, and walk confidently into this world you have made. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
INVITATION TO CONFESSION
New every day is God’s love for us, and so new every day is our opportunity to come to the Creator who loves us with the truth of our lives. Trusting in God, in God’s grace and mercy, in God’s desire for wholeness and healing, let us make our confession, first in silent prayer.
SILENT PRAYER
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Holy God, we know that you created us in love, to enjoy this world and You, to serve your creation and your children. And we know that we do not do your will. With clenched hands, we can neither give nor receive. With eyes tight shut, we cannot see pain or beauty. With feet of clay, we cannot dance in joy or run to help.We ask for your help and your power to change. Open our hands and eyes, move our feet, toward grace and hope and trust in You. This we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Sisters and brothers in Christ, let us proclaim the Good News:
In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. And we are not only forgiven, we are also freed.
Let us greet with world as people made new in Christ.
CALL TO CONFESSION
Sometimes we fear that when we confess all that is wrong, we will be exposed and condemned. Our hope in Christ tells us a different thing, that when we confess we open up the way to mercy and forgiveness. Trusting in that hope, let us make our confession, first in silent prayer.
SILENT PRAYER
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
We are so scattered, O God: We flit from cause to cause; We are easily distracted by the next important thing; We think about yesterday and tomorrow but not today. Help us to be mindful of the grace and beauty that surround us right now. Help us commit to the need that is before us right now. Help us to think deeply, and respond generously, as you have loved us deeply and forgiven us generously. This we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Sisters and brothers in Christ, let us proclaim the Good News:
In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Alleluia! Amen.
INVITATION TO CONFESSION
The writer James asks, “Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your craving that are at ward within you?” Let us offer to God the unrest within us as we make our confession, first in silent prayer.
SILENT PRAYER
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Holy God, You sent Your Son Jesus to be our peace, and yet we know so much strife and war, in the world, in our communities, in our churches, and within ourselves. Untie the knots of envy and disappointment that dwell in our hearts. Loosen our grasp on worldly things, that we might open our hands to holy things. Turn us around to You, and make us whole, we pray. Amen.
*ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Sisters and brothers in Christ, the mercies of God are from everlasting to everlasting.
Let us proclaim the Good News:
In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Thanks be to God!
CALL TO CONFESSION
With our heads bowed and our hearts held high, let us bring to God all that is in our hearts, the whole of our lives. We offer the confession of who we are, awaiting God’s mercy and love.
SILENT PRAYER
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Great and gracious God, For apathy, For meanness, For boredom, For pride, For judgment, For dismissal: For all those ways we hurt you by hurting each other and ourselves, forgive us. Turn us around to you; heal us, and make us whole, we pray. Amen.
*ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Sisters and brothers in Christ, the mercies of God are from everlasting to everlasting.
Let us proclaim the Good News:
In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Thanks be to God!
CALL TO CONFESSION
In our full lives, it is often hard to find even a few moments of quiet, but when we do, they are often an invitation to look inward, to the heart and soul. What we see there may be beautiful or ugly. In this time of quiet, may we look within, and offer God the wholeness and truth of our lives.
SILENT PRAYER
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Holy God, gracious Creator, forgive us for not seeing the beauty that surrounds us. Forgive us when we look at screens rather than sunsets; forgive us when we read about a crisis and do not respond. Forgive us for thinking that we are the source of power and beauty and life. Turn us around, and give us new eyes to see; eyes to see hope in the clouds, eyes to see life in the blade of grass, to see power in the water and stone. This we pray in the name of Jesus, the beautiful Savior. Amen.
*ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us proclaim the Good News:
In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Thanks be to God! Amen.
Loving God, Our journey to You often feels like a dance, one step forward and two steps back. We follow and we falter; we try and we give up. The good we do seems to fall flat, and the wrong we do gets magnified. For all our failings, for all our missteps, You do not give up on us. Stay with, and when we lose our way, turn us around to You. This we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
CALL TO CONFESSION
Let us open our hearts, minds, and souls to the One who loves us without condition, trusting that we will receive grace and mercy.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Merciful God, we offer you our lives, full as they are of shadow and light, of kindness and apathy, of hope and despair. Take what is broken and mend it; take what is wrong and right it; take what is destructive and disable it; take what is useless and make it useful. Heal our sin, we pray. Amen.
CALL TO CONFESSION
With hope for God’s mercy, and trust in God’s love, let us admit the truth of our lives, first in silent prayer.
SILENT PRAYER
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
There are times, O God, when our greatest sin is not what we do but what we fail to do. For those times when we have not spoken up; for those times when we have not acted; for those times when we have not responded: forgive us. Give us courage to name what is wrong when we see it. Give us confidence to do what is hard. Give us grace to reach out when that is frightening or uncomfortable. This we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
New every morning is God’s love for us, and so we are bold to proclaim the Good News:
In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Thanks be to God!
The following is not so much a prayer of confession, but excerpted from an essay on the nature of confession. From David Whyte’s “Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words”. (Langley, WA: Many Rivers Press, 2015)
from Confession
“Confession is a stripping away of protection, the telling of a truth which might once have seemed like a humiliation, become suddenly a gateway, an entrance to solid ground; even a first step home. To confess is to free oneself, not only by admitting a sin or an omission but to profess a deeper allegiance, a greater dedication to something beyond the mere threat of immediate punishment or the desolation of being shunned. To confess is to declare oneself ready for a more courageous road, one in which a previously defended identity might not only be shorn away, but be seen to be irrelevant, a distraction, a working delusion that kept us busy over the years and held us unaccountable to the real question.
* * * * *
“To confess is not only to acknowledge a truth we have held from ourselves all along, breathing quietly, alone and in secret what we could not initially give a voice, but a hopeful dedication to a larger power that might make us powerless to commit the selfsame sin again.”
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Holy God, we know when we have hurt another. We know when we have acted against your rule of love. We know when we have neglected to do something that would help another person or help the world. We know that we sin. We also know that you love us, and forgive us, and call us to forgive others. So help us in all of this, so that we truly are your partners in service and mission. Amen.
*ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
God is not hate, God is not wrath, God is not apathy.
God is love. And that means that God forgives, again and again.
Thanks be to God! Alleluia, Amen. CALL TO CONFESSION
To confess to God is do something holy – opening ourselves to the light and healing of the divine. Trusting in God’s grace and mercy, let us admit the truth of our lives, first in silent prayer.
SILENT PRAYER
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Holy God,For being so proud, so smart, so ableThat we forget how to be humble, how to learn, and how to seek help;For being so smug, so anxious, so meanThat we forget we are not always right, or in control, or good;For being less than what you created us to be:Forgive us, and make us whole.This we pray in Jesus’ strong name. Amen.
CALL TO CONFESSION
With respect for each other, with trust in God, with hope that our hearts will want to turn to the good, let us make our confession, first in silent prayer.
SILENT PRAYER
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Holy and wonderful God, hear our prayer. We would be different – less judging, less selfish, less greedy; more hopeful, more graceful, more trusting. We would be different, if you would come into our hearts and cleanse them; if you would open our hands and direct them; if you would move our minds and feet to follow you. We will be different, if you will change us, and remake us, again, in your image. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Sisters and brothers in Christ, it is my joy to tell you that in Christ we are forgiven.
Thanks be to God for this gift! Alleluia. Amen.
(This week our children are leading in worship, and the liturgy was written with younger voices in mind.)
CALL TO CONFESSION
We don’t always get everything right, and when that happens, sometimes we hurt other people or ourselves. God knows that, and wants to help us make things right. We start by telling God the whole truth. Let us now pray to God about those things.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Dear God, sometimes I mess up.
Sometimes I hurt someone else because I am angry or mean. Dear God, sometimes I’m not sorry about what I did.
But really I am not proud of my actions. Dear God, sometimes I try hard to be kind and thoughtful.
Help me to live that way. Dear God, thank you for the gift of forgiveness.
Amen. CALL TO CONFESSION
The call to confess is the call to lay down the burden you may carry, the burden of guilt, of judgement, of knowing you hurt another. We lay that burden down at the feet of the One who calls all of us to a life of forgiveness and repentance. Trusting in the mercy and love of our God, let us pray, first in silence.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Savior, like a shepherd lead us;
Much we need Thy tender care.
Forgive us for the wrong we know we have done:
Our neglect of the vulnerable; our misuse of your gifts; our hoarding of things we are called to share.
Forgives us for the good we have failed to do:
Offering grace to the imperfect; forgiving those who have hurt us; seeing the good that surrounds us.
Turn us away from that which harms, and turn us to you, the One who heals. Amen.
CALL TO CONFESSION
To be invited into the practice of confession is to invited into the possibility of reconciliation that is available through the grace of God. To be participate in the prayer of confession is to admit the truth that all is not right, and that we need God to make it right. Trusting in God’s grace and love, let us make our confession, first in silent prayer.
*SILENT CONFESSION
*PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Holy God, all is not right. We are not right with you or with each other. Anger and fear and disappointment rest uneasily in our hearts. It is hard to trust and it is even harder to forgive. Help us to turn to you to find the strength we need. Help us to look to the example of Jesus to see how to love. Help us look deep within ourselves for our own fault. We pray for your forgiveness, and we pray to be forgiven. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
There is pain in the world, O God; And we numb it And we ignore it. And we make it worse. And we try to fix it. And we cause it – sometimes.Take away the source of the pain, we pray: The source that is evil, The source that is hatred, The source that is pride, The source that is ignorance, The source that is apathy.Forgive us our part in the pain of the world. Heal us, heal all, and make us whole. Amen.
CALL TO CONFESSION
To confess is to admit – to admit something that might make us feel guilty or ashamed or sad. To confess to God is to await – to await that word of grace, of forgiveness, of hope. Trusting in God’s mercy, let us make our confession.
SILENT CONFESSION
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Loving Creator, we admit that we like to put You into neat little boxes – the God of this, the God of that, the God of these people but not of those people. We admit we make You too small. We admit we make You manageable. Forgive our short-sightedness, our self-limitedness, and our stubbornness. Enlarge our hearts, souls, and minds so that we let go of the need to define You so that we can embrace the joy of letting You be the One who loves. In Christ we pray, Amen.
CALL TO CONFESSION Because faith is more than an intellectual pursuit, because faith is really about how we live each day, in this time we can reflect on our living, on the good we have done and the harm we have caused. Mindful of God’s grace and love, let us make our confession, first in silent prayer.
SILENT CONFESSION
PRAYER OF CONFESSION God of grace and love, here is our prayer:
Have mercy on us for the wrong we have done.
Show us where our service is needed.
Help us set aside our prejudice and bias.
Fill us with a longing to know you better.
Forgive us our lukewarm responses.
Kindle in us passion for your work.
Set us free from sin and fear.
Send us out to be your people.
This we pray in the name of Jesus, our leader, our guide, our Savior. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS Sisters and brothers in Christ, let us proclaim the Good News: In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven, reconciled, loved, and changed. Amen.
CALL TO CONFESSION The call to confession is always a call to experience God’s mercy. In admitting the truth of our loves to our loving Creator, we open ourselves to the experience of grace and healing. Trusting in that divine love, let us pray, first in silence.
SILENT CONFESSION
PRAYER OF CONFESSION Holy One: at times when we hear the bad news of the world, it is as though we’ve been in the middle of a bad dream, and then we turn over and go back to sleep, ignoring the plight of your children. It is hard to see tragedy and suffering. It is hard to admit whatever responsibility we might have in the plagues of the world. It is hard to work for the good when the good seems so far off. So help us, dear Lord. Give us courage to see clearly. Give us strength to do our part. Give us grace to forgive others and ourselves. And give us faith to follow you. This is our prayer, offered in the name of Christ. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS Friends, hear the good news: Jesus calls us follow him, and he will not lead us astray. His path is one of forgiveness and renewal. Know that you are forgiven, and so you are ready to go out and serve. Alleluia! Amen.
Holy God, remind us that we are loved when we find ourselves unlovable. Remind us that there is hope when all we see around us makes us despair. Remind us that you sent the Prince of Peace when war and violence overwhelm. Remind us that you are the merciful judge when injustice seems to prevail. Remind us that you give us all we need to do your work in the world. Remind us that you give us grace so that we can be your people. We confess our doubt, and trust in your love. Amen.
Holy God, we admit to You that all is not right – in our hearts and in our world,
We look to the darkness and not to the light.
We look for what is broken, and not at what is being mended.
We look to criticize and not to praise.
We look at ourselves and not to You.
Turn us around so that we look at the possibility, at hope, at promise, at grace, at healing, at love.
This we pray in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
For the season of Advent
Holy God, we confess that we are busy with many preparations. We are busy with parties, with feasts, with giving. We are busy cleaning house and wrapping presents. We are busy with the stuff of the holiday. And we confess that our busyness may be misplaced, that we spend more time preparing for things than preparing for You. Draw us back to the center which is You. Remind us that our hearts and souls have work to do, too. Enable us to let go of that which does not matter, and to see what does matter. This we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
CALL TO CONFESSION We have come this morning with full hearts – hearts that carry sorrow, and worry, and guilt. In this time we offer our hearts to God, remembering Christ’s invitation that all who are weary and carrying heavy burdens may come to him. Trusting in that love, let us make our confession, first in silent prayer.
SILENT CONFESSION
PRAYER OF CONFESSION Holy God, we offer you our life:
That the good we have done will build up your children, and not our own ego;
That the harm we have caused will lead us to confession and atonement;
That the anxiety that eats at us will dissipate into trust;
That the hope we hold will multiply and leaven the world like yeast.
Hear us, forgive us, reshape us, and love us, we pray. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Friends, this is the Good News:
In Christ, God brought us back to our true home, to hope, to love, and to life.
Know that you are forgiven, and be at peace.
Thanks be to God.
CALL TO CONFESSION In the midst of our sorrows and guilt, our doubt and regrets, we are bathed in light and beauty that come from God. Trusting God’s love for us, let us make our confession, first in silent prayer.
SILENT CONFESSION
PRAYER OF CONFESSION God of love and mystery, make us whole. Heal the wounds we carry in us, and heal the wounds we have created in others. Make us strong in the broken places, that we will know of what we speak when we offer mercy and hope. Forgive us, and enable us to forgive in that same way. God of love and mystery, make us whole, through your Son Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
Loving Mystery, we have tried and succeeded, and we have tried and failed. Sometimes we are terribly sorry, and sometimes we are terribly smug. We can be vigilant about the wrong things, and oblivious to the right things. We ask for your help to become the people you created us to be. We ask for your forgiveness for the harm we have caused. We ask for your love so that we will love in return. All these things we say in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
O God, when we look at you, and then look at ourselves, we realize how tiny we are. But we are not so small that our actions are inconsequential. Sometimes a word of thanks brings warmth to a cold heart. Sometimes a choice to forgive opens up a new future for two people. Sometimes a thoughtless gesture slashes the heart. Sometimes our inaction leaves the world in its sorry state. We ask for your help. We ask that some of your greatness infuse our smallness. We ask that we will not be captive to the wrong we do, but changed by the mercy you grant. Amen.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Holy God, we carry the burdens of words said we wish we had not said; of acts done in anger or pride that we wish we could undo. We hold grudges for a long time, and we do not reconciliation with those from whom we are estranged. Forgive us. Forgive those words and deeds and inactions that cause you and others sorrow. Restore us, renew us, and give us the strength, courage, and love we need to be your gracious people. Amen.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
All is not well, Holy God. Your children die of preventable diseases while we pop an aspirin for the slightest ache. Your children live in abject poverty, while others bask in palaces of gold. Your children cry out, and we turn up the volumes so we can’t hear them. All is not well. We tear each other down. We abuse your gift of the earth. We fill our minds with frivolous things, and allow our hearts to stay blank. All is not well, so forgive us for our part in the misery of the world. Forgive us for the ways in which we turn from you. Heal your world, and heal us, that we might go out and be people of salvation, not of destruction. Through Christ, who makes all things new, who makes all things well, we pray. Amen.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Holy God, hear our prayer. There is pain and there is sorrow, there are broken relationships and broken hearts. Sometimes we are the cause of those things. We have caused pain. We have broken the relationship. Sometimes we are simply a part of them – we are the ones who suffer, we are the ones who are broken. So we ask for your forgiveness, and we ask for your healing. Beyond that, we ask that you would help us turn from our former selves to the persons you have created us to be, full of mercy and grace and love. Through Christ, who is our example, we pray. Amen.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION, BASED ON PSALM 8
Great God of all creation, who are we that you are mindful of us? You who set the stars in motion, who launched waves crashing against the shore, who knows the heights and depths of the world; Why do you bother with us? You count the hairs on our heads, and call us each by name. You give us your wisdom and you uphold us by your Spirit. You tend to us and care for us, and we do not understand why.We cannot grasp your love for us, O God, for it is unlike us to be that loving and forgiving. We become enmeshed by our own needs and wants and desires and we fail to see beyond anything but our own little circles. Turn us around, O God. Help us to see as you see, and to reach out as you reach out. Remind us once again of the sacredness of our ordinary, day-to-day lives. By your Spirit, teach us to live truly as beings little lower than angels. In your mercy, O God, forgive who we are and bless who we will be. Amen.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Holy God, hear our prayer. You send prophets and saviors to help us, to save us, to raise us, and our response is to question You. You heal someone’s beloved, and we ask, “Why not this one too?” You shower food upon some who hunger, and we complain that our stomachs are growling. Forgive us. Forgive us not for our doubts, but for our limited sight. Open wide before us the vista of your grace, and the expanse of your love, and the wonder of your healing power. Through Christ we pray. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Sisters and brothers in Christ, hear the Good News: At some time each one of us has been lost in many different ways. But now we are indeed found, and not simply found, but rejoiced over, and cherished, and beloved. Your sins are forgiven; you have come home. Alleluia! Amen.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Gracious and merciful God, you know us. You know our hearts, you know our thoughts, you know our actions. You know our successes and our failures, that which commends us and that which condemns us. We know ourselves, too; we know the good we have done, and we know how we have fallen short. We would know you better, so that the burden of sin would not weigh us down. We would know you better, so that the freedom of your mercy would enable us to fly. Forgive our sins, and restore us to wholeness, we pray. Amen.
CALL TO CONFESSION
Life is full – full of good things and full of hard things. Each of us works to cope with the easy and with the sad, and sometimes as we try to manage all that life hands us, we ignore the pain of someone else, the struggle of another. God calls to see it all, and to help when we can. Aware of our shortcomings and confident of God’s grace, let us make our confession, first in silent prayer.
SILENT CONFESSION
PRAYER OF CONFESSION Holy God, we are an imperfect people and we need your love. Forgive us when we ignore your children who cry out in distress. Forgive us when we choose not to see those who frighten us, or those who bother us, or those who remind us too much of ourselves. Forgive us when we put rules ahead of people, and choose legality over kindness and judgment that lacks mercy. Enable us to see as you see, the wide vistas open to the possibility of compassion and grace. O God, hear our prayer. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Sisters and brothers, let us proclaim the Good News:
In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.
And now we are freed to go out and love and serve.
Thanks be to God.
CALL TO CONFESSION
Maybe it’s easier to understand sin as separation: separation from God, separation from others, separation from our true selves. In the midst of separation, God longs for reconciliation, walking toward us, and inviting us to walk toward our God. In silent prayer and in unison prayer, let us walk toward God seeking grace.
*SILENT CONFESSION
*PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Holy God, we wander off.
We are distracted by shiny things, and we get lost.
Merciful God, you come to find us.
Lost and afraid, we become stubborn and intractable.
Loving God, you pick us up and brush us off and take us home.
And we will wander again, but for the moment, we are safe and forgiven. And so we thank you. Amen.
*ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Let us affirm the good news of the gospel:
In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Alleluia! Amen.
CALL TO CONFESSION
We come before God in silence and in prayer, to open our hearts to our Creator, the one who heals, loves, and forgives.
SILENT CONFESSION
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Merciful God, hear our prayer. When we are courageous, or down and out, or too weary to do anything else, we admit the truth of our lives. We do not add beauty to the world. We do not offer kindness as often as we might. We pay lip service to the cries of others, and sit idly by until the sound fades. Sometimes get it right, and sometimes we don’t. We ask for your mercy and grace, and we ask for your help, to give us courage and strength to live as you would have us live. In Christ, who gave us those qualities and who taught us all we need to know, we pray. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
Dear Child of God, in our world it is often hard to remember that God loves you just as you are. God loves you not because you are good. God loves you, period. God loves us not because we are loveable. No, we are loveable precisely because God loves us.
(The Assurance are words from Bishop Desmond Tutu in God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time, Doubleday, 2004.
Let us make our confession.
We have failed.
And God loves us.
We have forgotten.
And God loves us.
We have injured.
And God loves us.
We have gloated.
And God loves us.
We have hoarded.
And God loves us.
We have turned away.
And God loves us. Amen.
God of mercy and love, we know that sometimes we allow ourselves to be distracted by things that really don’t matter all that much. We would rather pursue intellectual arguments than live the gospel. We would rather debate our equals than defend the vulnerable. We prefer to think about you instead of getting to know you. So help us, God. Help us to discern what does matter to you and to the vulnerable you call us to. Help us to open up our hearts, wide in love and grace, and so be living examples of your good news. In Christ we pray. Amen.
Merciful and loving God: when we are ungrateful, remind us of your grace. When we are oblivious, open our eyes. When we are harsh, gentle our spirit. When we are apathetic, show us your suffering children. When we demean ourselves, whisper that we are created in your image. When we lose all hope, show us the empty tomb. So shape us, and turn us around, that we will live with blessing and grace and light. Amen.
CALL TO CONFESSION In the beauty of this space, in this sacred moment, in the fellowship we have with one another, we speak with God about our lives, about how we have followed and how we have faltered. Trusting in God’s grace and mercy, let us make our confession.
SILENT CONFESSION
PRAYER OF CONFESSION Merciful God: we claim that you sent Jesus to us to take away the sin of the world, and to say that is to say that we are part of that sin. Maybe our small errors add up; or maybe there is no degree to sin, that one is as hurtful as another. Help us not to dwell on vocabulary. Help us not to focus on what sin means but to acknowledge that we do things that hurt other people, and the creation, and ourselves, and you. Come into our hearts, then, and give us strength and courage to be less hurtful and more loving. These things we pray in the name of Jesus, who showed us how this is done. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS Friends, hear the good news: Jesus came not to condemn us, but to love us and save us and show us the way. Know that we are forgiven, and be at peace.
Alleluia! Amen.
CALL TO CONFESSION
New every morning is God’s love for us, and so new each day is our opportunity to clean the slate, to make our confession, and to be assured of God’s forgiveness and love. On this new day, let us come to God in prayer.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION Holy God, we know that you are as close as breath, and at the same time there is a great distance between You and us. That distance is sometimes tragedy, when we feel abandoned. That distance is sometimes a force of evil, when something conspires against us. That distance is sometimes our foolish choices, or our selfish acts, or the hurt we cause another. We seek your forgiveness and we seek reconciliation with you and each other. So assure us of your closeness, and your power, and your mercy, and your ability to change our lives for the good. Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS Sisters and brothers in Christ, let us proclaim the Good News: In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven, reconciled, loved, and changed. Amen.
FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT
CALL TO CONFESSION
In the season of Lent, as we prepare to receive the Easter gift of resurrection, we are invited on a journey. We are invited to walk a path of introspection and reflection, acknowledging both the shadows and light of our lives. Trusting in the grace of God, and before one another, let us admit the shadows and light, first in silent prayer.
*SILENT CONFESSION
*PRAYER OF CONFESSION Holy God, you know us better than we know ourselves, and you see us more clearly. How impossible it seems that we could ever hide anything from you, or even try to hide something; but we do. Sometimes we pretend to be better than we are. We do thing we know will hurt others and act as though we are blameless. But we aren’t. We are complicit, and we are guilty, and we are broken. So we ask for your forgiveness, because you love us more than we can imagine, and you can make us whole beyond our wildest dreams. This we ask in the name of Jesus, who came to show us the way. Amen.
*ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart, for indeed we are forgiven. Thanks be to God. Amen.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
Gracious Creator, we seek your blessing, knowing that we have not earned it. In our faults, we seek your blessing. In our sins, we seek your forgiveness. In our weakness, we seek your strength. In our sorrow, we seek your consolation. In our trials, we seek your justice. In our pain, we seek your peace. Hear our prayers, O God, and make our hearts new. Amen.
holdfasttowhatisgood.com
Text: Philippians 2:1-11
Today, in response to the gospel message we’ve heard over the past eight days, let’s spend some time sitting quietly before the Lord.
Let’s acknowledge our condition,
confess our sins,
receive His grace,
rejoice in His forgiveness
and cling to the living hope that is ours in Jesus.
To guide your prayer time this morning, consider using this prayer:
Prayer of confession *
based on Philippians 2:1-8
Lord, we come confessing.
You tell us that if we are in Christ, there is great encouragement,
comfort in love, and participation in the Spirit.
But we often lack the affection and sympathy that should be a sign of this.
We are not of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
Instead, we are anxious about our own ideas
and sometimes we use love to exclude instead of binding together.
We operate from a position of selfish ambition and conceit
and do not have the humility to count others as more significant than ourselves.
We look only to our own interests and not to the interests of others.
O Lord, give us the mind of Christ —
to serve one another without thought of status or position.
May we know what it is to be truly humble and emptied of self and to wholly love.
Amen.
reminder
Our next study – on 1, 2 & 3 John – will start tomorrow, February 5.
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__________________
*Used with permission from Cornerstone Presbyterian Church, Franklin, TN
shereadstruth.com
From Prayers for Lent and Holy Week,
Table of contents
Ash Wednesday
Prayer of Confession
Gracious God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole hearts, and we have not loved our neighbors as we love ourselves. Forgive us, we pray. Open our hearts wide to you, that you might renew our faith and strengthen us for obedient service. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
O God who will not let us go, as we worship this day we confess that we have been so wrapped up in ourselves that we have taken little note of either you or our neighbor who is in need. Forgive us, we pray, when we forget that our own scripture tells us that you, O God, “created humankind in your image, in the image of you, you created them; male and female you created them.” (Genesis 1:27) On this Ash Wednesday, bring to our consciousness the truth that it is from the dust we came and to the dust we will return. Between these moments of dust, Lord, let us shine as those “crowned with glory and honor.” (Psalm 8:5) Bring this to pass as we pray in Jesus’s name. Amen.
Prayer of Confession (Psalm 51)
Holy God, wash us thoroughly of our iniquity and cleanse us from our sin; for our transgressions are ever before us and we have done what is evil in your sight. You desire truth in our inward being, yet we turn our backs on the wisdom you would impart in our hearts. Create in us a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within us. Do not cast us away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from us. Forgive our sins and lead us in your paths anew that we might teach transgressors your ways and lead sinners to return to you. Amen.
Prayer of Confession (Psalm 51)
Merciful God, cleanse us with hyssop; wash us white as snow. You desire truth in our inner being – truth about our many failings: lust, greed, oppression, violence, intolerance, racism. Purge our sins with the atoning hyssop of Christ the Lord. Amen.
First Week of Lent
Prayer of Confession
Our gracious God, Jesus taught us to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Jesus taught us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus taught us to trust you completely. We confess that we have often failed to learn, and what we have learned we have often failed to put into practice. Forgive us, we pray, in the name of Jesus, the great teacher. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
We confess, O God, that we are attracted to false gods and easy answers in life. We are vulnerable to temptations that could damage us in ways that are not obvious. Forgive us that sin draws us like moths to a flame. Restore us and fill us with godly resolve. In Jesus’s name, we pray. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Gracious God, we confess that we often lose sight of the hope we have in you. Our failures and our self-doubts preoccupy our thoughts and paralyze us from your work. We feel at times intimidated and useless in making a difference in the world. We pray for your forgiveness and we ask for your help so that we might be steadfast and faithful to you. Help us focus on what you have given us in Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Prayer of Confession (Luke 4)
Gracious God, you know the difficult paths we tread; you know the challenges we face. Forgive us when we wander away from your guidance. Reclaim us when we seek other gods that lead to our own destruction. Guide us back to you that we may rest in your shelter. Strengthen our resolve that we may face the demons of our lives and courageously resist the temptations that blind us to your love. In hope and trust, we pray. Amen.
Second Week of Lent
Prayer of Confession (Mark 8)
Gracious God, we want to hold on to what we know. We are afraid to take risks for the sake of the gospel; we want to keep our lives safe. Forgive us, O God, when we cling to comfort, when we build barriers to protect ourselves, when we choose the easy way. Transform our fears that we may deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus to serve the world. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Forgiving God, we confess how we have rebelled against you. We have allowed doubts and fears to hold us back from the freedom to which you have called us in Christ Jesus our Lord. We have been quick to blame others for our weakness and slow to accept responsibility for ourselves. Forgive us, and grant us your peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Prayer of Confession (Genesis 15; Psalm 27)
Eternal God, we are swift to join Abram’s doubt and impatience but we find it difficult to copy Abraham’s faith and trust. We want to believe your promises but the here-and-now problems of daily life consume our focus and erode our faith. Open our eyes to your light. Open our hearts to your love.. Open our minds to your possibilities. Speak to us today, O God, and strength our faith, that we, too, may know the everlasting power of your love. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Almighty God, we confess that we are incurable scorekeepers. We judge others with a standard we never use for ourselves. We see the speck in others’ eyes while ignoring the ugly log in our own. “Forgive us,” we pray. Forgive us for ever thinking we could be, even for one moment, the measure of righteousness or the standard of justice. As the cross of Christ casts its long shadow over our Lenten journey, call us again to lives of genuine penance and amendment of life. By your grace and through your transforming love, make us the people you have fashioned us to be, your sons and daughter, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
thevalueofsparrows.com
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4prayertoday.com
As Advent dawns again, O God, we lament that hateful chants, violence, and death have marked our streets.
Lord, have mercy!
God of all Advents, this season we cry, “If only you would tear open the heavens and come down!” But too often we forget that your arrival sets the captives free, separates the sheep and the goats, and judges those who hoard privilege at the expense of others.
Lord, have mercy!
Trusting in the promise that Christ is coming to save sinners, we lay bare before you our own failure to work for equality, our capitulation to injustice, and our enjoyment of benefits denied others because of their culture or the color of their skin.
Lord, have mercy!
Tear open the heavens, O God, dismantle all that destroys our community.
Come, Lord Jesus!
Help us to heed John the Baptist’s call to repent, for the Lord is near. Put on our lips, and more importantly in our hearts, the question of faith that ripples through the ages, “What, then, should we do?”
Come, Lord Jesus!
Silence in us any voice but yours, so we will have the ears to hear the answer and the courage to do what you command.
Come, Lord Jesus!
O God of all Advents, make all things new, including us.
You are welcome to use this prayer in worship. Please do not reprint without permission. May this litany be a beginning of a renewed struggle to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God across all the barriers that still divide us.
pres-outlook.org
I loved this prayer from our worship service this past Sunday. Wanted to share it with you. I can’t find its source. (I’m guessing from a Presbyterian prayer book?)
O promised Christ:
We are a world at war.
Our peace depends on your coming.
We are a sinful people.
Our pardon depends on your coming.
We are full of good intentions but weak at keeping promises;
our only hope of doing God’s will is that you should come and help us do it.
Lord Christ, Word made flesh,
our world waits for your peace, for your pardon, and for your grace.
Even so: Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.
* If you’d like to read something more substantial about Advent and the necessity and opportunity of/for waiting (longing), read what my pastor, Fred Harrell, has to say in this post, “How Long O Lord?”
www.patheos.com
