So, below is the reading of a short devotional service at Texas Childrens Hospital. I do not know where it comes from and if it is copyrighted I give that credit. I love these readings dearly and they still continue to capture my attention year after year. The italics are the phrases which really have my attention today.

Opening Sentence

Examine me O God and know my heart, test me and discover my thoughts, and lead me in the way of everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)

Collects

Jesus, holy and strong, by your fasting and temptation teach us self denial. Control and discipline us, that we may learn to obey.

Almighty and merciful God, you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent; create in us new and contrite hearts, so that when we turn to you and confess our sins we may receive your full and perfect forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Redeemer.

God of the desert, as we follow Jesus into the unknown, may we recognize the tempter when he comes; let it be your bread we eat, your world we serve and you alone we worship, Amen.

Imposition of Ashes

Prayer

Catch me in my anxious scurrying, God, and hold me in the Lenten season:

Hold my feet to the fire of Your grace and make me attentive to my mortality that I may begin to die now to those things that keep me from living with you and with my neighbors on this earth; 

to grudges and indifferences, 

to certainties that smother possibilities,

to my fascination with false securities,

to my addiction to sweat less dreams,

to my arrogant insistence on how it has to be,

to my corrosive fear of dying someday,

Which all eats away the wonder of living this day, and the adventure of losing my life in order to find it in you. Amen.