Morning Prayer: Wednesday 15 March 2017

March 15, 2017

Wednesday after Second Sunday of Lent
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 25

1 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul;
my God, I put my trust in you;*
let me not be humiliated,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.
2 Let none who look to you be put to shame;*
let the treacherous be disappointed in their schemes.
3 Show me your ways, O Lord,*
and teach me your paths.
4 Lead me in your truth and teach me,*
for you are the God of my salvation;
in you have I trusted all the day long.
5 Remember, O Lord, your compassion and love,*
for they are from everlasting.
6 Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions;*
remember me according to your love
and for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.
7 Gracious and upright is the Lord;*
therefore he teaches sinners in his way.
8 He guides the humble in doing right*
and teaches his way to the lowly.
9 All the paths of the Lord are love and faithfulness*
to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
10 For your name’s sake, O Lord,*
forgive my sin, for it is great.
11 Who are they who fear the Lord?*
he will teach them the way that they should choose.
12 They shall dwell in prosperity,*
and their offspring shall inherit the land.
13 The Lord is a friend to those who fear him*
and will show them his covenant.
14 My eyes are ever looking to the Lord,*
for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.
15 Turn to me and have pity on me,*
for I am left alone and in misery.
16 The sorrows of my heart have increased;*
bring me out of my troubles.
17 Look upon my adversity and misery*
and forgive me all my sin.
18 Look upon my enemies, for they are many,*
and they bear a violent hatred against me.
19 Protect my life and deliver me;*
let me not be put to shame, for I have trusted in you.
20 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,*
for my hope has been in you.
21 Deliver Israel, O God,*
out of all his troubles.

God of compassion and love, forgive our sins, relieve our misery, satisfy our longing, and fulfil all our hopes for peace; through your Son Jesus Christ our Redeemer.

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)

Jeremiah 3.6-18

The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and played the whore there? And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me’; but she did not return, and her false sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce; yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. Because she took her whoredom so lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. Yet for all this her false sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but only in pretence, says the Lord.

Then the Lord said to me: Faithless Israel has shown herself less guilty than false Judah. Go, and proclaim these words towards the north, and say:
Return, faithless Israel,

says the Lord.
I will not look on you in anger,
for I am merciful,

says the Lord;
I will not be angry for ever.
Only acknowledge your guilt,
that you have rebelled against the Lord your God,
and scattered your favours among strangers under every green tree,
and have not obeyed my voice,

says the Lord.
Return, O faithless children,

says the Lord,
for I am your master;
I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
and I will bring you to Zion.

I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. And when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says the Lord, they shall no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ It shall not come to mind, or be remembered, or missed; nor shall another one be made. At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no longer stubbornly follow their own evil will. In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your ancestors for a heritage.

Romans 1.28-2.11

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious towards parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. They know God’s decree, that those who practise such things deserve to die—yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practise them.

Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgement on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. You say, ‘We know that God’s judgement on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.’ Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgement of God? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgement will be revealed. For he will repay according to each one’s deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honour and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honour and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.

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: Lord, you are indeed the Saviour of the world.*
Give us living water, that we may not thirst.
(cf Jn 3.16;4.15)

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: Lord, you are indeed the Saviour of the world.*
Give us living water, that we may not thirst.
(cf Jn 3.16;4.15)

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 God, you see that we lack the strength to help ourselves; protect us both inwardly and outwardly; that our bodies may be guarded from adversity, and our minds may be defended from such thoughts as assault and harm the soul; 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.