Gurukul Lutheran Theological College & Research Institute, Chennai.

Eucharist Liturgy for Ash Wednesday Retreat 26th February 2020

Let us Pray…

O God, you are infinite, eternal and unchangeable, glorious in holiness, full of love and
compassion, abundant in grace and truth. Your works everywhere praise you, and your
glory is revealed in Jesus Christ our Saviour. Therefore we praise you, blessed and holy
Trinity, one God, forever and ever. Amen

(Let us all stand and Sing the Hymn… )

Help us accept each other; as Christ accepted us;

Teach us as sister, brother, each person to embrace.
Be present, Lord, among us and Bring us to believe:
We are ourselves accepted and meant to love and live.

Teach us, O Lord, your lessons, as in our daily life

We struggle to be human and search for hope and faith.
Teach us to care for people, for all - not just for some,
To love them as we find them or as they may become.

Let your acceptance change us so that we may be moved

in living situations to do the truth in love;
to practice your acceptance until we know by heart
the table of forgiveness and laughter's healing art.

Lord, for today's encounters with all who are in need,

who hunger for acceptance, for justice and for bread,
we need new eyes for seeing, new hands for holding on:
renew us with your Spirit; Lord, free us, make us one!

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PREPARATION

Let us read Responsively…. Psalm 51

L: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant
mercy blot out my transgressions.

C: Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

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

C:  Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you
are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.

L: Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.

C: You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

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

C: Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.

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

C: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.

L: Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.

C: Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.

L: Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

C: Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing
aloud of your deliverance.

L: O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

C: For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not
be pleased.

L: The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you
will not despise.

C: Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,

All:  Then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt
offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

THE PEACE (remain standing)

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L: Having been forgiven and made whole through our Peacemaker, let us live together in
peace. God’s peace challenges us and guides us towards the acts of justice, peace and
integration of the whole creation. Let us say ‘Shalom’ to one another and give each other a
sign of reconciliation and peace.

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
I believe in one God who creates, loves, cares and corrects all people, who acts in history,
and who promises never to leave us alone.

I believe in Jesus of Nazareth who is Lord, Christ and Redeemer, who wants not to be
idealized, but to be followed.

I believe that we live in the presence of the Holy Spirit without whom we are nothing;
filled with the Holy Spirit we are able to become creative, free and full of life.

I believe in the Church of God in Jesus Christ, a community where we find companions
and courage for the struggles of life, where we grow in the understanding of our faith
through worship, fellowship and acts of liberation.

I believe that God has called us to a partnership for the continuance of his mission in
this time and place, and that, though we live in the midst of confusion, turmoil,
exploitation, oppression and in the grip of the forces of death, we are called to be
instruments of peace and justice.

I believe that God brings about changes in people, in nature and in the whole cosmos,
that God makes the whole creation a new heaven and a new earth of justice, peace,
harmony and life in all it’s fullness. Amen

THE COMMUNION
The Lord be with you
And also with your Spirit
Lift up your hearts
We lift them up to the Lord
Let us give thanks to the Lord, our God
It is meet and right so to do

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the same night he was betrayed, took bread; and when he had given
thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, “Take and eat; this is my body, which

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is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me”. In the same way, after supper, he took
the cup, and when he had given thanks, gave it to them saying, “Drink of this cup, all of
you; this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you and the remission of
your sins. Do this, as often as you drink of it, in remembrance of me”. Amen.

O Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.
O Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.
O Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us your peace.
Amen.
(Sharing)

POST-COMMUNION PRAYER (L & C):

God of truth and love and peace and justice, now let us, your servants depart in peace
according to your Word, for we have beheld the path that you have prepared for us and
for all people. Strengthen our faith that we might become the instruments for the
healing, reconciliation and peace of the world. Glory be to the Father/Mother and to the
Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world
without end. Amen.
BENEDICTION
May the peace of God that transcends all our understanding keep us in the knowledge and
love of our Lord Jesus Christ. May blessing of the Triune God – the Father/Mother, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit be with us now and forever – AMEN.
CLOSING HYMN

Take my life and let it be

Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
*Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in endless praise.

Take my love, my Lord, I pour

At Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.