Most holy and merciful Father: We confess to You that we have sinned by our own fault in thought, word, and deed; by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart, and mind, and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven.

Have mercy on us, Lord. We have been deaf to Your call to serve, as Christ served us. We have not been true to the mind of Christ. We have grieved Your Holy Spirit.

We confess to You, Lord, all our unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy and impatience of our lives, our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people, our anger and our envy at those more fortunate than us, our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work, our negligence in prayer and worship and our failure to commend the faith that is in us.

Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done:  for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty, for all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors, and for our contempt toward those who differ from us.

Restore us, good Lord, and let Your anger depart from us. Favorably hear us for Your mercy is great. Accomplish in us and all Your church the work of Your salvation, that we may show forth Your glory in the world. By the cross and passion of Your Son our Lord, bring us with all Your saints to the joy of His resurrection. In Jesus’ name…

The words of the gospel for those who repent and believe:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forth as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith.  (Romans 3:23-25a)