Evening Prayer: Thursday 3 August 2017

August 3, 2017

Thursday after Pentecost 8
Evening Prayer – Week A

O God, make speed to save us;
O Lord, make haste to help us.

Glory to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;*
as it was in the beginning, is now, and shall be for ever.
Amen. 

PSALMODY

Antiphon: O Lord my God, how excellent is your greatness!*
you are clothed with majesty and splendour

Opening (from Psalm 104)

1 You appointed the moon to mark the seasons,*
and the sun knows the time of its setting.
2 You make darkness that it may be night,*
in which all the beasts of the forest prowl.
3 May the glory of the Lord endure for ever;*
may the Lord rejoice in all his works.
4 May these words of mine please him;*
I will rejoice in the Lord.

Glory to the Father…

or a suitable hymn

Psalm 105.23-45

23 Israel came into Egypt,*
and Jacob became a sojourner in the land of Ham.
24 The Lord made his people exceedingly fruitful;*
he made them stronger than their enemies;
25 Whose heart he turned, so that they hated his people,*
and dealt unjustly with his servants.
26 He sent Moses his servant,*
and Aaron whom he had chosen.
27 They worked his signs among them,*
and portents in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness, and it grew dark;*
but the Egyptians rebelled against his words.
29 He turned their waters into blood*
and caused their fish to die.
30 Their land was overrun by frogs,*
in the very chambers of their kings.
31 He spoke, and there came swarms of insects*
and gnats within all their borders.
32 He gave them hailstones instead of rain,*
and flames of fire throughout their land.
33 He blasted their vines and their fig trees*
and shattered every tree in their country.
34 He spoke, and the locusts came,*
and young locusts without number,
35 Which ate up all the green plants in their land*
and devoured the fruit of their soil.
36 He struck down the firstborn of their land,*
the firstfruits of all their strength.
37 He led out his people with silver and gold;*
in all their tribes there was not one that stumbled.
38 Egypt was glad of their going,*
because they were afraid of them.
39 He spread out a cloud for a covering*
and a fire to give light in the night season.
40 They asked, and quails appeared,*
and he satisfied them with bread from heaven.
41 He opened the rock, and water flowed,*
so the river ran in the dry places.
42 For God remembered his holy word*
and Abraham his servant.
43 So he led forth his people with gladness,*
his chosen with shouts of joy.
44 He gave his people the lands of the nations,*
and they took the fruit of others’ toil,
45 That they might keep his statutes*
and observe his laws.
Hallelujah!

God of our salvation, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, you have fulfilled your promise to our ancestors in the faith to redeem the world from slavery and to lead us into the promised land. Grant us living water from the rock and bread f

Conclusion from 1 John 4

1 Beloved let us love one another,*
for love is of God;
2 And those who love are born of God*
and know God.
3 Those who do not love do not know God,*
for God is love.
4 In this the love of God was made manifest among us,*
that God sent his only Son into the world
so that we might live through him.
5 In this is love: not that we loved God,*
but that God loved us and sent his Son
to be the expiation for our sins.
6 Beloved, if God so loved us,*
we also ought to love one another.

Glory to the Father…

Antiphon: O Lord my God, how excellent is your greatness!
you are clothed with majesty and splendour.

READING(S)

Mark 7:1-23

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
“This people honours me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.”
You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’

Then he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, “Honour your father and your mother”; and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban” (that is, an offering to God)— then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.’

Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’

When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder,adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’

 

Response Ps. 119.105

Your word is a lantern to my feet.
Your word is a lantern to my feet.
A light upon my path.
A lantern to my feet.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
Your word is a lantern to my feet.

MAGNIFICAT

Magnificat Antiphon: Show, O Lord, the strength of your arm;* scatter the proud and exalt the lowly.

1 My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,*
my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour;
2 for he has looked with favour on his lowly servant;*
from this day all generations will call me blessed.
3 The Almighty has done great things for me*
and holy is his name.
4 He has mercy on those who fear him*
in every generation.
5 He has shown the strength of his arm;*
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
6 He has cast down the mighty from their thrones*
and has lifted up the lowly.
7 He has filled the hungry with good things,*
and the rich he has sent away empty.
8 He has come to the help of his servant Israel,*
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
9 the promise he made to our forebears,*
to Abraham and his children for ever.

Glory to the Father… (may be said by all)

Magnificat Antiphon: Show, O Lord, the strength of your arm;* scatter the proud and exalt the lowly.

PRAYERS

Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Do not bring us to the time of trial,
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours,
now and for ever.
Amen.

Collect of the Day

O God,
whose providence orders all things in heaven and earth:
keep from us everything harmful,
and lead us to all that is good;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end. Amen.

Lord God almighty, come and dispel the darkness from our hearts, that in the radiance of your brightness we may know you, the only unfading light, glorious in all eternity. Amen.

Let us bless the Lord:
Thanks be to God!

The God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing:
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.