Shout out, do not hold back! Lift Up your voice like a trumpet! Announce ..., to the house of
Jacob their sins. - Isaiah 58:1

A LENTEN REFLECTION

For forty days each year, Christians observe a sacred time of fasting and prayer called Lent. They
do so in order to acknowledge the presence of God within all creation and their common call to
continue to create a world of mercy, justice and sustainability. Muslims observe a similar period
known as Ramadan. Jews do so during Rosh Hashanah.

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday (Feb. 21 this year)), the day when Christians anoint themselves
with ashes. This year, some groups conducted an Ash Wednesday service at the Chicago Federal
Building.  For your reflection, we have included below some of the prayers used at this service.

LITANY OF ASHES

These ashes represent the bombed homes and burned bodies of the Iraqi people
MAKE US MERCIFUL
These ashes represent our own dead soldiers, Marines, contractors, journalists and aid workers
consumed in the inferno of a far off illegal war
MAKE US MERCIFUL
These ashes are what’s left of the Bill of Rights, the Geneva Convention and habeas corpus.
MAKE US MERCIFUL
These ashes represent the scores of suicides of our own young men and women forced to fight an
illegal and immoral war and forced to live with the consequences.
MAKE US MERCIFUL
These ashes represent the trauma of war in the nightmares of our loved ones returned from Iraq.
These ashes are the trauma of war in the faces of Iraqi children and their parents.
MAKE US MERCIFUL
These ashes represent the residue of our own failure of conscience and action against the war
MAKE US MERCIFUL

AND SO WE CONFESS:

For the times that we have stepped back instead of standing up
WE ASK FOR FORGIVENESS
For the times when our silence deafened our courage
WE ASK FOR FORGIVENESS
For the times we took the path to perdition instead of the road to redemption
WE ASK FOR FORGIVENESS
For the times that our fears overwhelmed our hopes
WE ASK FOR FORGIVENESS

IMPOSITION OF ASHES:
Each person will impose ashes on another person while saying: “for the forgiveness of the sin of
war”

PRAYER OF CONFESSION
After each petition, all will respond AMEN!

WE CONFESS for the complicity of this nation in the atrocity of the Iraq War. AMEN
WE CONFESS for the complicity of our leaders in lying to the American people in order to justify
the war. AMEN
WE CONFESS that torture is now more widespread in Iraq than before the U.S. invasion.
AMEN
WE MOURN for the Iraqi infants dying of dysentery for lack of clean water and for the infants
dying in America for lack of affordable health care. AMEN
WE CONFESS for this nation’s sin of invasion that killed thousands and for the sin of
occupation that has killed hundreds of thousands. AMEN
WE MOURN for the nearly 2 million internally displaced Iraqis without homes and the 2 million
refugees outside of Iraq without rights. AMEN
WE CONFESS that misspent dollars for war have robbed our own children of quality education,
robbed our workers of affordable housing, robbed our neighbors of health care and shrouded this
nation in shame. AMEN
WE MOURN for Iraqis without electricity and for U.S. citizens without heat; we mourn for Iraqi
wounded without adequate doctors and medicine and for those sick in the U.S. without adequate
service at their local hospital. AMEN
WE CONFESS that this nation is addicted to war that is destroying the people of Iraq and is
destroying the soul of America. AMEN
WE CONFESS to the hypocrisy of senators and legislators who speak out against war but fund
its execution. AMEN

ALL: WE CONFESS ALL OF THESE SINS IN THE NAME OF A JUST AND MERCIFUL
GOD. MAY THIS ASH WEDNESDAY BE THE BEGINNING OF A PATH TO TRUE PEACE

ACTIONS
1. Become part of the Occupation Project (a campaign to stop funding the war) as an occupier or
as a supporter of those occupying congressional offices. Contact (773) 878-3815 info@vcnv.org
http://www.vcnv.org/project/the-occupation-project
2. Contact your elected representatives and demand that they pledge to vote and / or filibuster
against any further war funding. Call the congressional switchboard (202-224-3121) and ask for
them by name. To find the name of your representative or Senators, go to
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress and enter your address.
3. Share and discuss this leaflet –  and /or use it for reflection and prayer -- with your family,
friends, coworkers and your faith community.