Morning Prayer: Monday 11 December 2017

December 11, 2017

Monday 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 50

1 The Lord, the God of gods, has spoken;*
he has called the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 Out of Zion, perfect in its beauty,*
God reveals himself in glory.
3 Our God will come and will not keep silence;*
before him there is a consuming flame,
and round about him a raging storm.
4 He calls the heavens and the earth from above*
to witness the judgement of his people.
5 ‘Gather before me my loyal followers,*
those who have made a covenant with me
and sealed it with sacrifice.’
6 Let the heavens declare the rightness of his cause;*
for God himself is judge.
7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak:
‘O Israel, I will bear witness against you;*
for I am God, your God.
8 I do not accuse you because of your sacrifices;*
your offerings are always before me.
9 I will take no bull-calf from your stalls,*
nor he-goats out of your pens;
10 For the beasts of the forest are mine,*
the herds in their thousands upon the hills.
11 I know every bird in the sky,*
and the creatures of the fields are in my sight.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you,*
for the whole world is mine and all that is in it.
13 Do you think I eat the flesh of bulls,*
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving*
and make good your vows to the Most High.
15 Call upon me in the day of trouble;*
I will deliver you, and you shall honour me.’
16 But to the wicked God says:*
‘Why do you recite my statutes,
and take my covenant upon your lips;
17 Since you refuse discipline,*
and toss my words behind your back?
18 When you see a thief, you make him your friend,*
and you cast in your lot with adulterers.
19 You have loosed your lips for evil,*
and harnessed your tongue to a lie.
20 You are always speaking evil of your brother*
and slandering your own mother’s son.
21 These things you have done, and I kept still,*
and you thought that I am like you.’
22 ‘I have made my accusation;*
I have put my case in order before your eyes.
23 Consider this well, you who forget God,*
lest I rend you and there be none to deliver you.
24 Whoever offers me the sacrifice of thanksgiving honours me;*
but to those who keep in my way will I show
the salvation of God.’

Blessed are you, God of glory; you call us to give up all our vain attempts to reach you, and to come before you in thanksgiving for your great salvation, shown to us in 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)

Amos 6.1-14

Alas for those who are at ease in Zion,
and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
the notables of the first of the nations,
to whom the house of Israel resorts!
Cross over to Calneh, and see;
from there go to Hamath the great;
then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
Or is your territory greater than their territory,
O you that put far away the evil day,
and bring near a reign of violence?

Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory,
and lounge on their couches,
and eat lambs from the flock,
and calves from the stall;
who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,
and like David improvise on instruments of music;
who drink wine from bowls,
and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile,
and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.

The Lord God has sworn by himself
(says the Lord, the God of hosts):
I abhor the pride of Jacob
and hate his strongholds;
and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.

If ten people remain in one house, they shall die. And if a relative, one who burns the dead, shall take up the body to bring it out of the house, and shall say to someone in the innermost parts of the house, ‘Is anyone else with you?’ the answer will come, ‘No.’ Then the relative shall say, ‘Hush! We must not mention the name of the Lord.’

See, the Lord commands,
and the great house shall be shattered to bits,
and the little house to pieces.
Do horses run on rocks?
Does one plough the sea with oxen?
But you have turned justice into poison
and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—
you who rejoice in Lo-debar,
who say, ‘Have we not by our own strength
taken Karnaim for ourselves?’
Indeed, I am raising up against you a nation,
O house of Israel, says the Lord, the God of hosts,
and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath
to the Wadi Arabah.

Revelation 1.1-8

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servantswhat must soon take place; he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near.

John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and madeus to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Look! He is coming with the clouds;
every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.
So it is to be. Amen.

‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

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.