Shrovetide

There was a time when we spoke of Shrovetide which was from Quinquagesima and included Shrove Monday and Shrove Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday still survives as a title among some while Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday seem more and more widespread. As I work to gather up the tattered bits and forgotten gems of our patrimony, I do not want to let Shrovetide go into the dustbin of ecclesiastical parlance. We need to get shriven; we don't need to get beads -- as my Californian Episcopalian friend reminds me via e-mail.

In advance of Ash Wednesday (or Ash Monday if you are Maronite) here follows a prayer by David Silk to consider adding to your devotions:

A Prayer of Devotion to God

Eternal God, I am not my own but yours.
Take me for your own,
and help me in all things to do your holy will.
My God, I give myself to you,
in joy and in sorrow,
in sickness and in health,
in success and in failure,
in life and in death,
in time and for eternity.
Make me and keep me your own;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.