Morning Prayer: Wednesday 22 March 2017

March 22, 2017

Thomas Ken, Bishop, 1711
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 8.18-9.6

My joy is gone, grief is upon me,
my heart is sick.
Hark, the cry of my poor people
from far and wide in the land:
‘Is the Lord not in Zion?
Is her King not in her?’
(‘Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,
with their foreign idols?’)
‘The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.’
For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.

Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of my poor people
not been restored?

O that my head were a spring of water,
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
so that I might weep day and night
for the slain of my poor people!
O that I had in the desert
a traveller’s lodging-place,
that I might leave my people
and go away from them!
For they are all adulterers,
a band of traitors.
They bend their tongues like bows;
they have grown strong in the land for falsehood, and not for truth;
for they proceed from evil to evil,
and they do not know me, says the Lord.

Beware of your neighbours,
and put no trust in any of your kin;
for all your kin are supplanters,
and every neighbour goes around like a slanderer.
They all deceive their neighbours,
and no one speaks the truth;
they have taught their tongues to speak lies;
they commit iniquity and are too weary to repent.
Oppression upon oppression, deceit upon deceit!
They refuse to know me, says the Lord.

Romans 5.1-11

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

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: I will arise and go to my father* and I will say to him,
Father I have sinned against heaven and before you. (Luke 15.18)

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: I will arise and go to my father* and I will say to him,
Father I have sinned against heaven and before you. (Luke 15.18)

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
Merciful Father, we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: when we are discouraged by our weakness, give us strength to follow Christ, our pattern and our hope; 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.