First Evening Prayer of the Transfigured
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: Sing to the Lord a new song;*
sing his praise in the congregation of the faithful. (Ps. 149.1)
Opening (from Psalm 149)
1 Let Israel rejoice in his maker;*
let the children of Zion be joyful in their king.
2 For the Lord takes pleasure in his people*
and adorns the poor with victory.
3 Let the faithful rejoice in triumph;*
let them be joyful on their beds.
4 Let the praises of God be in their throat*
and a two-edged sword in their hand.
Glory to the Father…
or a suitable hymn
Psalm 89 Part II
19 You spoke once in a vision and said to your faithful people:*
‘I have set the crown upon a warrior
and have exalted one chosen out of the people.
20 I have found David my servant;*
with my holy oil have I anointed him.
21 My hand will hold him fast*
and my arm will make him strong.
22 No enemy shall deceive him,*
nor any wicked man bring him down.
23 I will crush his foes before him*
and strike down those who hate him.
24 My faithfulness and love shall be with him,*
and he shall be victorious through my name.
25 I shall make his dominion extend*
from the Great Sea to the River.
26 He will say to me, “You are my Father,*
my God, and the rock of my salvation.”
27 I will make him my firstborn*
and higher than the kings of the earth.
28 I will keep my love for him for ever,*
and my covenant will stand firm for him.
29 I will establish his line for ever*
and his throne as the days of heaven.
30 If his children forsake my law*
and do not walk according to my judgements;
31 If they break my statutes*
and do not keep my commandments ;
32 I will punish their transgressions with a rod*
and their iniquities with the lash;
33 But I will not take my love from him,*
nor let my faithfulness prove false.
34 I will not break my covenant,*
nor change what has gone out of my lips.
35 Once for all I have sworn by my holiness:*
“I will not lie to David.
36 His line shall endure for ever*
and his throne as the sun before me;
37 It shall stand fast for evermore like the moon,*
the abiding witness in the sky.”’
Conclusion (from Revelation 4 and 5)
1 Glory and honour and power*
are yours by right, O Lord our God;
2 For you created all things*
and by your will they have their being.
3 Glory and honour and power*
are yours by right, O Lamb who was slain;
4 For by your blood you ransomed us for God,*
from every race and language,
from every people and nation.
5 To make us a kingdom of priests*
to stand and serve before our God.
6 To God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb*
be praise and honour, glory and might,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Antiphon: Sing to the Lord a new song; sing his praise in the congregation of the faithful.
READING(S)
1 Kings 19:1-12
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, ‘So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.’ Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there.
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: ‘It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.’ Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the LORD came a second time, touched him, and said, ‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’ He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.
Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’
He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for theLORD is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.
2 Corinthians 3:1-9, 18
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Such is the confidence that we have through Christ towards God. Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Now if the ministry of death, chiselled in letters on stone tablets, came in glory so that the people of Israel could not gaze at Moses’ face because of the glory of his face, a glory now set aside, how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, much more does the ministry of justification abound in glory! And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
Silence
Response (from Ps. 132.15 or 147.12)
Zion shall be your resting place for ever.
Zion shall be your resting place for ever.
Here will you dwell for you delight in her.
Your resting place for ever.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
Zion shall be your resting place for ever.
or
You delight, Lord, in those who fear you.
You delight, Lord, in those who fear you.
Who wait in hope for your mercy.
Those who fear you.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
You delight, Lord, in those who fear you.
MAGNIFICAT
Magnificat Antiphons: The Lord swore to David,* the fruit of your body I will set upon your throne.
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)
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
Almighty God, your Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry with the bread of his life and the word of his kingdom. Renew your people with your heavenly grace, and in all our weakness sustain us by your true and living bread, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
(A suitable hymn)
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.
