Litany of Penitence, from the Book of Common Prayer

Litany of Penitence 

The Celebrant and People together, all kneeling
 Most holy and merciful Father:
We confess to you and to one another,
and to the whole communion of saints
in heaven and on earth,
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.

The Celebrant continues 
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.
Have mercy on us, Lord. 

We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of our lives,
We confess to you, Lord. 

Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people,
We confess to you, Lord.

Our anger at our own frustration, and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves,
We confess to you, Lord.

Our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work,
We confess to you, Lord. 

Our negligence in prayer and worship, and our failure to commend the faith that is in us,
We confess to you, Lord.

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,
Accept our repentance, Lord.

For all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors, and for our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us,
Accept our repentance, Lord.

For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us,
Accept our repentance, Lord.

Restore us, good Lord, and let your anger depart from us;
Favorably hear us, for your mercy is great. 

Accomplish in us 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. 

The Bishop, if present, or the Priest, stands and, facing the people, says 
Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desires not the death of sinners, but rather that they may turn from their wickedness and live, has given power and commandment to his ministers to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the absolution and remission of their sins. He pardons and absolves all those who truly repent, and with sincere hearts believe his holy Gospel.

Therefore we beseech him to grant us true repentance and his Holy Spirit, that those things may please him which we do on this day, and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy, so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Peace is then exchanged.

Eternal Seeping Through the Physical

We come into thy house, our home,
once more to give thanks:
for earth and sea and sky in harmony of colour,
the air of the eternal seeping through the physical,
the everlasting glory dipping into time.
We praise Thee.

For nature resplendent:
growing beasts, mergent crops, singing birds,
and all the gayness of the green.
We bless Thee.

For swift running tides, resistant waves, Thy spirit on the waters,
the spirit of the inerrant will,
striving with the currents that are also Thine.
We bless Thee.
O Lord: how marvellous are Thy works.
In majesty hast Thou created them.

As we look on man
we thank Thee above all that Thou hast been mindful of us
in Jesus Christ, our Lord:
that even as a man fell from Thy creation which was good,
so Thou didst send the Proper Man to restore in us the image:
that we find the road to harmony again in Him.

We praise Thee.
Yes: already vibrant with the everlasting,
we are enriched beyond the noblest works of nature.
That the spirit moves upon the turbulent waters of our lives:
We bless Thee.
Yes: that thou dost honour each of us
with a flowing tide and also with resistant waves,
and that the waves only engulf when we lose our trust in Thee:
We give Thee many thanks.
And that even Thou who hast set the stars on their courses
hast also sent each one of us within the orbit of Thy love.
The hairs of our head are numbered.
We give Thee humble praise.

By the awareness of Thy good creation round us,
by the intimations of Thy redemption in us,
by the pulsing sense of Thy spirit round about us and between us—
what else is left for us to do but to say sorry?
For our earthiness and our laziness:
our blindness and forgetting.
What else but to kneel when we see Thee hanging there
 bleeding there, but most certainly risen there
and waiting till we all get together there to take Thee down?
Give us life that we may be penitent.
Penitent that we may live.

--from The Whole Earth Shall Cry Glory: Iona Prayers, ed. by George MacLeod