Morning Prayer: Monday 12 September 2016

September 12, 2016

Monday after Pentecost 17
Morning Prayer – Week B

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: Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom;*
your dominion endures throughout all ages. (Ps. 145.13)

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 145)

1 I will exalt you, O God my king,*
and bless your name for ever and ever.
2 All your works praise you, O Lord,*
and your faithful servants bless you.
3 They make known the glory of your kingdom*
and speak of your power;
4 that the peoples may know of your power*
and the glorious splendour of your kingdom.

Glory to the Father…

or a suitable hymn

Psalm 115

1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us,
but to your name give glory;*
because of your love and because of your faithfulness.
2 Why should the heathen say,*
‘Where then is their God?’
3 Our God is in heaven;*
whatever he wills to do he does.
4 Their idols are silver and gold,*
the work of human hands.
5 They have mouths, but they cannot speak;*
eyes have they, but they cannot see;
6 They have ears, but they cannot hear;*
noses, but they cannot smell;
7 They have hands, but they cannot feel;
feet, but they cannot walk;*
they make no sound with their throat.
8 Those who make them are like them,*
and so are all who put their trust in them.
9 O Israel, trust in the Lord;*
he is their help and their shield.
10 O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord;*
he is their help and their shield.
11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord;*
he is their help and their shield.
12 The Lord has been mindful of us, and he will bless us;*
he will bless the house of Israel;
he will bless the house of Aaron;
13 He will bless those who fear the Lord,*
both small and great together.
14 My the Lord increase you more and more,*
you and your children after you.
15 May you be blessed by the Lord,*
the maker of heaven and earth.
16 The heaven of heavens is the Lord’s,*
but he entrusted the earth to its peoples.
17 The dead do not praise the Lord,*
nor all those who go down into silence;
18 But we will bless the Lord,*
from this time forth for evermore.
Hallelujah!

God, you delivered Israel from the worship of false gods. Redeem, we pray, your people in every age from the pursuit of all that is worthless and untrue in human life; through Jesus our Saviour, who came to bring us life in all its fullness.

Conclusion (Isaiah 40)

1 The Lord is the everlasting God,*
the Creator of the ends of the earth,
2 who does not faint nor grow weary,*
whose understanding is unsearchable,
3 who gives power to the faint,*
increase of strength to those who have no might.
4 Even youth shall faint and be weary;*
the young shall fall exhausted.
5 But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;*
they shall mount up with wings like eagles.
6 They shall run and not be weary,*
they shall walk and not faint.

Glory to the Father…

Antiphon: Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
Your dominion endures throughout all ages.

READING(S)

Job 40:1-24

And the Lord said to Job:
‘Shall a fault-finder contend with the Almighty?
Anyone who argues with God must respond.’

Then Job answered the Lord:
‘See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth.
I have spoken once, and I will not answer;
twice, but will proceed no further.’

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
‘Gird up your loins like a man;
I will question you, and you declare to me.
Will you even put me in the wrong?
Will you condemn me that you may be justified?
Have you an arm like God,
and can you thunder with a voice like his?

‘Deck yourself with majesty and dignity;
clothe yourself with glory and splendour.
Pour out the overflowings of your anger,
and look on all who are proud, and abase them.
Look on all who are proud, and bring them low;
tread down the wicked where they stand.
Hide them all in the dust together;
bind their faces in the world below.
Then I will also acknowledge to you
that your own right hand can give you victory.

‘Look at Behemoth,
which I made just as I made you;
it eats grass like an ox.
Its strength is in its loins,
and its power in the muscles of its belly.
It makes its tail stiff like a cedar;
the sinews of its thighs are knit together.
Its bones are tubes of bronze,
its limbs like bars of iron.

‘It is the first of the great acts of God—
only its Maker can approach it with the sword.
For the mountains yield food for it
where all the wild animals play.
Under the lotus plants it lies,
in the covert of the reeds and in the marsh.
The lotus trees cover it for shade;
the willows of the wadi surround it.
Even if the river is turbulent, it is not frightened;
it is confident though Jordan rushes against its mouth.
Can one take it with hooks
or pierce its nose with a snare?

Acts 15:36 – 16:5

After some days Paul said to Barnabas, ‘Come, let us return and visit the believers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.’ Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. But Paul decided not to take with them one who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work. The disagreement became so sharp that they parted company; Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and set out, the believers commending him to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

Paul went on also to Derbe and to Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer; but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him; and he took him and had him circumcised because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went from town to town, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in numbers daily.

Silence

Response (Ps. 86.12)

I will thank you, O Lord my God, with all my heart.
I will thank you, O Lord my God, with all my heart.
I will glorify your name for evermore.
With all my heart.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
I will thank you, O Lord my God, with all my heart.

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 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
Guard your Church, O Lord, with your perpetual mercy: and since without your aid we lose our way, draw us always, by your help, away from harm, and steer us towards salvation; 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.