Morning Prayer: Thursday 2 March 2017

March 2, 2017

Chad of Lichfield, Bishop, 672
Morning Prayer – Returning to God

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: O God, you are my God;*
eagerly I seek you. (Ps. 63.1)

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 63)

1 My soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you,*
as in a barren and dry land where there is no water.
2 For your loving-kindness is better than life itself;*
my lips shall give you praise.
3 For you have been my helper,*
and under the shadow of your wings I will rejoice.
4 My soul clings to you;*
your right hand holds me fast.

Glory to the Father…

or a suitable hymn

Psalm 77

1 I will cry aloud to God;*
I will cry aloud, and he will hear me.
2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord;*
my hands were stretched out by night and did not tire;
I refused to be comforted.
3 I think of God, I am restless,*
I ponder, and my spirit faints.
4 You will not let my eyelids close;*
I am troubled and I cannot speak.
5 I consider the days of old;*
I remember the years long past;
6 I commune with my heart in the night;*
I ponder and search my mind.
7 Will the Lord cast me off for ever?*
will he no more show his favour?
8 Has his loving-kindness come to an end for ever?*
has his promise failed for evermore?
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?*
has he, in his anger, withheld his compassion?
10 And I said, ‘My grief is this:*
the right hand of the Most High has lost its power.’
11 I will remember the works of the Lord,*
and call to mind your wonders of old time.
12 I will meditate on all your acts*
and ponder your mighty deeds.
13 Your way, O God, is holy;*
who is so great a god as our God?
14 You are the God who works wonders*
and have declared your power among the peoples.
15 By your strength you have redeemed your people,*
the children of Jacob and Joseph.
16 The waters saw you, O God;
the waters saw you and trembled;*
the very depths were shaken.
17 The clouds poured out water;
the skies thundered;*
your arrows flashed to and fro;
18 The sound of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
your lightnings lit up the world;*
the earth trembled and shook.
19 Your way was in the sea,
and your paths in the great waters,*
yet your footsteps were not seen.
20 You led your people like a flock*
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

God of saving power, remember us in times of sorrow and despair. Redeem us with your strength and guide us through the wilderness. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ.

Conclusion (from Ezekiel 36)

1 I will gather you from every country,*
and bring you home to your own land.
2 I will pour clean water over you,*
and cleanse you from your idols.
3 A new heart I will give you,*
and put a new spirit within you.
4 I will take from your body the heart of stone.*
and give you a heart of flesh.
5 I will put my spirit within you.*
and make you walk in my ways and observe my decrees.
6 You will live in the land that I gave to your forebears;*
you will be my people and I will be your God.

Glory to the Father…

Antiphon: O God, you are my God;
eagerly I seek you.

READING(S)

Deuteronomy 7.6-11

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you—for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, and who repays in their own person those who reject him. He does not delay but repays in their own person those who reject him. Therefore, observe diligently the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that I am commanding you today.

Titus 1.1-16

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that is in accordance with godliness, in the hope of eternal life that God, who never lies, promised before the ages began— in due time he revealed his word through the proclamation with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Saviour,

To Titus, my loyal child in the faith we share:

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour.

I left you behind in Crete for this reason, that you should put in order what remained to be done, and should appoint elders in every town, as I directed you: someone who is blameless, married only once, whose children are believers, not accused of debauchery and not rebellious. For a bishop, as God’s steward, must be blameless; he must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or addicted to wine or violent or greedy for gain; but he must be hospitable, a lover of goodness, prudent, upright, devout, and self-controlled. He must have a firm grasp of the word that is trustworthy in accordance with the teaching, so that he may be able both to preach with sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it.

There are also many rebellious people, idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision; they must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for sordid gain what it is not right to teach. It was one of them, their very own prophet, who said,
‘Cretans are always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons.’
That testimony is true. For this reason rebuke them sharply, so that they may become sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish myths or to commandments of those who reject the truth. To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure. Their very minds and consciences are corrupted. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their actions. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Silence

Response (Ps. 6.4)

Turn, O Lord, and deliver me.
Turn, O Lord, and deliver me.
Save me for your mercy’s sake.
And deliver me.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
Turn, O Lord, and deliver me

BENEDICTUS

Benedictus Antiphon: We shall not live by bread alone,* but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (Matt. 4.4)

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: We shall not live by bread alone,* but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (Matt. 4.4)

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
O Lord, grant that your faithful people may enter this season of penitence with faithfulness, and complete it with steadfast devotion; 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.