Morning Prayer: Monday 11 July 2016

July 11, 2016

Benedict of Nursia, Abbot, c.550
Morning Prayer – Week A

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 sing to the Lord as long as I live;*
I will praise my God while I have my being. (Ps. 104.34)

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 104)

1 You spread out the heavens like a curtain;*
you lay the beams of your chambers in the waters above;
2 You make the clouds your chariot;*
you ride on the wings of the wind;
3 You make the winds your messengers*
and flames of fire your servants.
4 You have set the earth upon its foundations,*
so that it never shall move at any time.

Glory to the Father…

or a suitable hymn

Psalm 98

1 Clap your hands, all you peoples;*
shout to God with a cry of joy.
2 For the Lord Most High is to be feared;*
he is the great king over all the earth.
3 He subdues the peoples under us,*
and the nations under our feet.
4 He chooses our inheritance for us,*
the pride of Jacob whom he loves.
5 God has gone up with a shout,*
the Lord with the sound of the ram’s-horn.

6 Sing praises to God, sing praises;*
sing praises to our king, sing praises.
7 For God is king of all the earth;*
sing praises with all your skill.
8 God reigns over the nations;*
God sits upon his holy throne.
9 The nobles of the peoples have gathered together*
with the people of the God of Abraham.
10 The rulers of the earth belong to God,*
and he is highly exalted.

Lord God, we see your righteous rule in all your works, and we join our voices with the song of your whole creation in praising you, in and through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Conclusion (from Isaiah 45)

1 Thus says the Lord who created the heavens,*
who formed the earth and made it;
2 who did not create it a chaos,*
but formed it to be inhabited –
3 Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth;*
for I am God: there is no other.
4 From my mouth has gone forth in righteousness*
a word that shall not return:
5 “To me every knee shall bow,*
every tongue shall swear”.’
6 In the Lord all the offspring of Israel*
shall triumph and glory.

Glory to the Father…

Antiphon: I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will
praise my God while I have my being.

READING(S)

Joshua 2:1-14

Then Joshua son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, ‘Go, view the land, especially Jericho.’ So they went, and entered the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and spent the night there. The king of Jericho was told, ‘Some Israelites have come here tonight to search out the land.’ Then the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab, ‘Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come only to search out the whole land.’ But the woman took the two men and hid them. Then she said, ‘True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they came from. And when it was time to close the gate at dark, the men went out. Where the men went I do not know. Pursue them quickly, for you can overtake them.’ She had, however, brought them up to the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax that she had laid out on the roof. So the men pursued them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. As soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

Before they went to sleep, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men: ‘I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt in fear before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. As soon as we heard it, our hearts failed, and there was no courage left in any of us because of you. TheLord your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below. Now then, since I have dealt kindly with you, swear to me by the Lord that you in turn will deal kindly with my family. Give me a sign of good faiththat you will spare my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.’ The men said to her, ‘Our life for yours! If you do not tell this business of ours, then we will deal kindly and faithfully with you when the Lord gives us the land.’

Romans 11:1-12

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?‘Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.’ But what is the divine reply to him? ‘I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written,
‘God gave them a sluggish spirit,
eyes that would not see
and ears that would not hear,
down to this very day.’
And David says,
‘Let their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling-block and a retribution for them;
let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
and keep their backs for ever bent.’

So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their stumbling salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israeljealous. Now if their stumbling means riches for the world, and if their defeat means riches for Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!

Silence

Response (Ps 92.4)

In all you have done, O Lord, you have made me glad.
In all you have done, O Lord, you have made me glad.
I will sing for joy because of the works of your hands.
You have made me glad.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
In all you have done, O Lord, you have made me glad.

BENEDICTUS

Benedictus Antiphon: God has set us free* to worship him.

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: God has set us free* to worship him.

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, you have prepared for those who love you good things no eye has seen: pour into our hearts such love of you, that, by loving you in all things and above all things, we may be worthy of your promises, which surpass all we can desire; through 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.