Morning Prayer: Friday 16 December 2016

December 16, 2016

Friday after Third 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)

Isaiah 10.5-19

Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger—
the club in their hands is my fury!
Against a godless nation I send him,
and against the people of my wrath I command him,
to take spoil and seize plunder,
and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
But this is not what he intends,
nor does he have this in mind;
but it is in his heart to destroy,
and to cut off nations not a few.
For he says:
‘Are not my commanders all kings?
Is not Calno like Carchemish?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus?
As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols
whose images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols
what I have done to Samaria and her images?’

When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the arrogant boasting of the king of Assyria and his haughty pride. For he says:
‘By the strength of my hand I have done it,
and by my wisdom, for I have understanding;
I have removed the boundaries of peoples,
and have plundered their treasures;
like a bull I have brought down those who sat on thrones.
My hand has found, like a nest,
the wealth of the peoples;
and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken,
so I have gathered all the earth;
and there was none that moved a wing,
or opened its mouth, or chirped.’

Shall the axe vaunt itself over the one who wields it,
or the saw magnify itself against the one who handles it?
As if a rod should raise the one who lifts it up,
or as if a staff should lift the one who is not wood!
Therefore the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts,
will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors,
and under his glory a burning will be kindled,
like the burning of fire.
The light of Israel will become a fire,
and his Holy One a flame;
and it will burn and devour
his thorns and briers in one day.
The glory of his forest and his fruitful land
the Lord will destroy, both soul and body,
and it will be as when an invalid wastes away.
The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few
that a child can write them down.

2 Peter 2.17-22

These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved. For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with licentious desires of the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for people are slaves to whatever masters them. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was passed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb,
‘The dog turns back to its own vomit’,
and,
‘The sow is washed only to wallow in the mud.’

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: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,*
because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted. (Isaiah 61.1)

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: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,*
because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted. (Isaiah 61.1)

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 prayers, Lord, and hear us: that they who are sorrowful and suffering may rejoice at the Advent of your only-begotten Son; 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.