“Worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness”

Reverend Joey Odell / February 1, 2026

The Collect for Ash Wednesday:

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Observation and Emphases of “The First Day of Lent, otherwise known as Ash Wednesday” has gone through changes through past four centuries in the Anglican tradition. The imposition of ashes, a practice under Rome but not the East, was not part of the liturgical rubrics in the historic prayer books. However, those prayer books recognized that the first day of Lent was commonly referred to as Ash Wednesday, and that note was retained, while through the Canadian Prayer book of 1962 ashes remained absent. The imposition of ashes reappears in the flurry of liturgical revision in the 1960’s, first in the Scottish prayer book of 1967, the 1979 American Episcopal Church Book of Common Prayer, and thereafter across the Anglican Communion in updated liturgies such as the Church of England’s Common Worship.

However, the Ash Wednesday Liturgy was not unchanged between those periods. The early English prayer books of 1549, 1552, and 1662 included an introduction portion of the service that was referred to as “A Commination, or A Denouncement of God’s Anger and Judgement Against Sinners”. This included an antiphonal recitation of the curses taken mostly from Deuteronomy 27, as well as a lengthy reading of similar themed scripture verses taken from throughout the Bible, arranged as a long paragraph. This was immediately followed by Psalm 51. The reason for this section is given within: “To the intent that, being admonished of the great indignation of God against sinners, ye may the rather be moved to earnest and true repentance; and may walk more warily in these dangerous days; fleeing from such vices, for which ye affirm with your own mouths the curse of God to be due.”

For some reason, over the next century and a half, the church determined that the people did not need such motivations. The US 1789 prayerbook omitted the section prior to Psalm 51 entirely, and the proposed revision of the Church of Ireland prayerbook presented in 1861, explicitly recommends the same omissions. No prayerbook approved in the 20th or 21st century, with the exception of the REC 2004 prayer book, contains the commination. A fair assessment of the modern Ash Wednesday liturgies would not conclude that these new liturgies lead the people to more fully “be moved to earnest and true repentance; [and to] walk more warily in these dangerous days; fleeing from such vices.” Furthermore, this change foreshadowed the overall soft-pedalling of penitence and minimizing of the judgment of God against sin that grew in the

church throughout the world and is evidenced throughout the modern revisions to the BCPs as well as the modern lectionaries.

The everlasting mercy of God is not made less by fully embracing the fullness of his character, to include wrath and judgment – no, our appreciation of the grace and mercy of God in our Lord Jesus Christ is greater when we include reminders of our sinfulness and that we are deserving of his just wrath against us. As we approach Ash Wednesday, let us consider how we may remind ourselves and others of our great need for a savior, the just punishment we deserve, and what amazing grace our Triune God has shown us, by “worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness” in earnest – whether we are blessed to use the commination or not.