Morning Prayer: Friday 15 December 2017

December 15, 2017

Friday after Second Sunday of Advent
Morning Prayer – Anticipation

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: Show your servants your works* and your splendour to their children.
(Ps. 90.16)

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 90)

1 Lord, you have been our refuge*
from one generation to another.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or the land and the earth were born,*
from age to age you are God.
3 Satisfy us by your loving-kindness in the morning;*
so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.
4 Make us glad by the measure of the days that you afflicted us*
and the years in which we suffered adversity.

Glory to the Father…

or a suitable hymn

Psalm 94

1 O Lord God of vengeance,*
O God of vengeance, show yourself.
2 Rise up, O Judge of the world;*
give the arrogant their just deserts.
3 How long shall the wicked, O Lord,*
how long shall the wicked triumph?
4 They bluster in their insolence;*
all evildoers are full of boasting.
5 They crush your people, O Lord,*
and afflict your chosen nation.
6 They murder the widow and the stranger*
and put the orphans to death.
7 Yet they say, ‘The Lord does not see,*
the God of Jacob takes no notice.’
8 Consider well, you dullards among the people;*
when will you fools understand?
9 He that planted the ear, does he not hear?*
he that formed the eye, does he not see?
10 He who admonishes the nations, will he not punish?*
he who teaches all the world, has he no knowledge?
11 The Lord knows our human thoughts;*
how like a puff of wind they are.
12 Happy are they whom you instruct, O Lord!*
whom you teach out of your law;
13 To give them rest in evil days,*
until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For the Lord will not abandon his people,*
nor will he forsake his own.
15 For judgement will again be just,*
and all the true of heart will follow it.
16 Who rose up for me against the wicked?*
who took my part against the evildoers?
17 If the Lord had not come to my help,*
I should soon have dwelt in the land of silence.
18 As often as I said, ‘My foot has slipped,’*
your love, O Lord, upheld me.
19 When many cares fill my mind,*
your consolations cheer my soul.
20 Can a corrupt tribunal have any part with you,*
one which frames evil into law?
21 They conspire against the life of the just*
and condemn the innocent to death.
22 But the Lord has become my stronghold,*
and my God the rock of my trust.
23 He will turn their wickedness back upon them
and destroy them in their own malice;*
the Lord our God will destroy them.

O just Judge of all the world, when the dark power of evil threatens your creation, may we, through your strength within us, maintain the sure knowledge of your love and mercy, which we see in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Conclusion Isaiah 2.2-5

1 In days to come, the mountain where the Lord dwells*
will be lifted high above all the mountains
and raised above the hills.
2 All the nations will flock to it;*
countless peoples will come to it.
3 And they will say, Come let us go to the mountain of the Lord,*
to the temple of the God of Jacob,
4. who will teach us his ways,*
and we will walk in his paths;
5. who will sit in judgement over the nations;*
be arbiter among many peoples.
6. They will beat their swords into ploughshares,*
and their spears into sickles;
7. nation shall not lift up sword against nation,*
nor ever again prepare for war.
8. O people of Jacob come,*
let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Glory to the Father…

Antiphon: Show your servants your works,
and your splendour to their children.

READING(S)

Haggai 1.1-15

In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest: Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house. Then the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your panelled houses, while this house lies in ruins?Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider how you have fared.You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and you that earn wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes.

Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider how you have fared. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured, says the Lord. You have looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because my house lies in ruins, while all of you hurry off to your own houses. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the soil produces, on human beings and animals, and on all their labours.

Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lordtheir God, and the words of the prophet Haggai, as the Lord their God had sent him; and the people feared the Lord. Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, saying, I am with you, says the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month.

Revelation 2.18-29

‘And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze:

‘I know your works—your love, faith, service, and patient endurance. I know that your last works are greater than the first. But I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practise fornication and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her fornication. Beware, I am throwing her on a bed, and those who commit adultery with her I am throwing into great distress, unless they repent of her doings; and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve. But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call “the deep things of Satan”, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden; only hold fast to what you have until I come. To everyone who conquers and continues to do my works to the end,
I will give authority over the nations;
to rule them with an iron rod,
as when clay pots are shattered—
even as I also received authority from my Father. To the one who conquers I will also give the morning star. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Silence

Response Ps. 96.10

Tell it out among the nations: ‘The Lord is King!’
Tell it out among the nations: ‘The Lord is King!’
He will judge the peoples with equity
The Lord is King.’
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
Tell it out among the nations: ‘The Lord is King!’

BENEDICTUS

Benedictus Antiphon: Prepare the way of the Lord,* make his paths straight. All flesh shall see the salvation of God. (Luke 3.4,6)

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: Prepare the way of the Lord,* make his paths straight. All flesh shall see the salvation of God. (Luke 3.4,6)

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
Stir up our hearts, Lord,
to prepare the way of your only-begotten Son:
that, in his coming,
we might serve you with our hearts made pure;
through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord,
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.