Morning Prayer: Tuesday 22 March 2016

March 22, 2016

Tuesday of Holy Week
Morning Prayer – The Suffering Christ

O Lord, open our lips:
and our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

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: I will thank you, O Lord my God, with all my heart,*
and glorify your name for evermore. (Ps. 86.12)

Opening

VENITE

1 O come let us sing out to the Lord,*
let us shout in triumph to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his face with thanksgiving*
and cry out to him joyfully in psalms.
3 For the Lord is a great God,*
and a great king above all gods.
4 In his hands are the depths of the earth,*
and the peaks of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his and he made it;*
his hands moulded dry land.
6 Come let us worship and bow down,*
and kneel before the Lord our maker.
7 For he himself is our God;*
we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
8 Today if only you would hear his voice:*
‘Do not harden your hearts as Israel did in the wilderness;
9 when your fathers tested me;*
put me to proof though they had seen my works.
10 Of whom I swore in my wrath:*
“They shall not enter my rest.”’

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

or (from Psalm 86)

1 Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord,*
nor anything like your works.
2 All nations you have made will come and worship you, O Lord,*
and glorify your name.
3 For you are great; you do wondrous things;*
and you alone are God.
4 Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth;*
knit my heart to you that I may fear your name.

Glory to the Father…

or a suitable hymn

Psalm 56

1 Have mercy on me, O God,
for my enemies are hounding me;*
all day long they assault and oppress me.
2 They hound me all the day long;*
truly there are many who fight against me, O Most High.
3 Whenever I am afraid,*
I will put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust and will not be afraid,*
for what can flesh do to me?
5 All day long they damage my cause;*
their only thought is to do me evil.
6 They band together; they lie in wait;*
they spy upon my footsteps;
because they seek my life.
7 Shall they escape despite their wickedness?*
O God, in your anger, cast down the peoples.
8 You have noted my lamentation;
put my tears into your bottle;*
are they not recorded in your book?
9 Whenever I call upon you, my enemies will be put to flight;*
this I know, for God is on my side.
10 In God the Lord, whose word I praise,
in God I trust and will not be afraid,*
for what can mortals do to me?
11 I am bound by the vow I made to you, O God;*
I will present to you thank-offerings;
12 For you have rescued my soul from death and my feet
from stumbling,*
that I may walk before God in the light of the living.

Giver of courage, when our path is hard and dangerous, give us the grace of quiet confidence. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life.

Conclusion (from Isaiah 42)

Behold my servant, whom I uphold*
my chosen, in whom
my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him*
he will bring forth justice to the nations:
He will not cry nor lift up his voice*
or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break*
a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice*
he will not fail nor be discouraged,
till he has established justice in the earth*
and the coastlands wait for his law.

Glory to the Father…

Antiphon: I will thank you, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and glorify your name for evermore.

READING(S)

Lamentations 1:17-22

Zion stretches out her hands,
but there is no one to comfort her;
the Lord has commanded against Jacob
that his neighbours should become his foes;
Jerusalem has become
a filthy thing among them.

The Lord is in the right,
for I have rebelled against his word;
but hear, all you peoples,
and behold my suffering;
my young women and young men
have gone into captivity.

I called to my lovers
but they deceived me;
my priests and elders
perished in the city
while seeking food
to revive their strength.

See, O Lord, how distressed I am;
my stomach churns,
my heart is wrung within me,
because I have been very rebellious.
In the street the sword bereaves;
in the house it is like death.

They heard how I was groaning,
with no one to comfort me.
All my enemies heard of my trouble;
they are glad that you have done it.
Bring on the day you have announced,
and let them be as I am.

Let all their evildoing come before you;
and deal with them
as you have dealt with me
because of all my transgressions;
for my groans are many
and my heart is faint.

2 Corinthians 1:8-22

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again, as you also join in helping us by your prayers, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted to us through the prayers of many.

Indeed, this is our boast, the testimony of our conscience: we have behaved in the world with frankness and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God—and all the more towards you. For we write to you nothing other than what you can read and also understand; I hope you will understand until the end— as you have already understood us in part—that on the day of the Lord Jesus we are your boast even as you are our boast.

Since I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a double favour; I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on to Judea. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to ordinary human standards, ready to say ‘Yes, yes’ and ‘No, no’ at the same time? As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been ‘Yes and No.’ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not ‘Yes and No’; but in him it is always ‘Yes.’ For in him every one of God’s promises is a ‘Yes.’ For this reason it is through him that we say the ‘Amen’, to the glory of God. But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, by putting his seal on us and giving us his Spirit in our hearts as a first instalment.

Silence

Response (Ps. 119.123)

My eyes have failed from watching for your salvation.
My eyes have failed from watching for your salvation.
And for your righteous promise.
For your salvation.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
My eyes have failed from watching for your salvation.

BENEDICTUS

Benedictus Antiphon: False witnesses have risen against me,* and they breathe out violence. (Ps 27.12)

1 Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel,*
for he has come to his people and set them free.
2 He has raised up for us a mighty saviour,*
born of the house of his servant David.
3 Through his holy prophets he promised of old*
that he would save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all that hate us.
4 He promised to show mercy to our forebears,*
and to remember his holy covenant.
5 This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham:*
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
6 free to worship him without fear,*
holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.
7 You my child shall be called the prophet of the Most High,*
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
8 to give his people knowledge of salvation*
by the forgiveness of all their sins.
9 In the tender compassion of our God*
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
10 to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,*
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

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

Benedictus Antiphon: False witnesses have risen against me,* and they breathe out violence. (Ps 27.12)

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 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, who, by the passion of your blessed Son, made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer pain and loss; for the sake of your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

God most holy, we give you thanks for bringing us out of the shadow of night into the light of morning; and we ask you for the joy of spending this day in your service, so that when evening comes, we may once more give you thanks, through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.

Let us bless the Lord:
Thanks be to God!

The Lord bless us and preserve us from all evil;
and bring us to life eternal.
Amen.