This prayer service prepares us for Lent, which begins next week on Ash Wednesday, February 17. See our schedule for Lent.

Here is the prayer offered in the service:

Living God, in their life these palms drew life from the earth and gave it back to our air and the animals they hosted and sheltered. In the worship of our community, they helped us offer festive joy: Grant now, O God, that these palms, reduced to ashes, may be for us a sign of your power to purify our hearts, that we may recognize death at work in us, and replant our lives in the sure and humble soil of your truth and grace. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen.