Morning Prayer: Wednesday 30 July 2014

July 30, 2014

Wednesday after Pentecost 7
Morning Prayer – Week D

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: Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness;*
make your way straight before me. (Ps. 5.8)

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 5)

1 In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice;*
early in the morning I make my appeal and watch for you.
2 Through the greatness of your mercy I will go into your house;*
I will bow down toward your holy temple in awe of you.
3 All who take refuge in you will be glad;*
they will sing out their joy for ever.
4 You will shelter them,*
so that those who love your name may exult in you.

Glory to the Father….
or a suitable hymn

Psalm 66

1 Be joyful in God, all you lands;*
sing the glory of his name; sing the glory of his praise.
2 Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds!*
because of your great strength your enemies
cringe before you.
3 All the earth bows down before you,*
sings to you, sings out your name.’
4 Come now and see the works of God,*
how wonderful he is in his doing toward all people.
5 He turned the sea into dry land,
so that they went through the water on foot,*
and there we rejoiced in him.
6 In his might he rules for ever;
his eyes keep watch over the nations;*
let no rebel rise up against him.
7 Bless our God, you peoples;*
make the voice of his praise to be heard;
8 Who holds our souls in life,*
and will not allow our feet to slip.
9 For you, O God, have proved us;*
you have tried us just as silver is tried.
10 You brought us into the snare;*
you laid heavy burdens upon our backs.
11 You let enemies ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water;*
but you brought us out into a place of refreshment.
12 I will enter your house with burnt-offerings
and will pay you my vows,*
which I promised with my lips
and spoke with my mouth when I was in trouble.
13 I will offer you sacrifices of fat beasts
with the smoke of rams;*
I will give you oxen and goats.
14 Come and listen, all you who fear God,*
and I will tell you what he has done for me.
15 I called out to him with my mouth,*
and his praise was on my tongue.
16 If I had found evil in my heart,*
the Lord would not have heard me;
17 But in truth God has heard me;*
he has attended to the voice of my prayer.
18 Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer,*
nor withheld his love from me.

God of power and might, you bring your people out of darkness and slavery into light and freedom through the waters of salvation. Receive our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, and keep us always in your steadfast love, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Conclusion (from Isaiah 66)

1 Rejoice with Jerusalem and exult in her,*
all you who love her.
2 Share her joy with all your heart,*
all you who mourn over her.
3 Then you may suck and be fed from her breasts,*
delighting in her plentiful milk.
4 For thus says the Lord, I will send peace flowing over her like a river,*
and the wealth of nations like a stream in flood;
5 you shall be carried in her arms,*
and rocked upon her knees.
6 As a mother comforts her child,*
so will I myself comfort you, and you shall find strength in Jerusalem.
7 This you shall see and be glad at heart;*
your limbs shall be as the fresh grass in spring.*
8 Then I myself will gather all nations;*
and they shall come and behold my glory.
Glory to the Father…

Antiphon: Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness;
make your way straight before me.

READING(S)
Judges 3:12-30

The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD strengthened King Eglon of Moab against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the LORD. In alliance with the Ammonites and the Amalekites, he went and defeated Israel; and they took possession of the city of palms. So the Israelites served King Eglon of Moab for eighteen years.
But when the Israelites cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. The Israelites sent tribute by him to King Eglon of Moab. Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length; and he fastened it on his right thigh under his clothes. Then he presented the tribute to King Eglon of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. When Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent the people who carried the tribute on their way. But he himself turned back at the sculptured stones near Gilgal, and said, ‘I have a secret message for you, O king.’ So the king said, ‘Silence!’ and all his attendants went out from his presence. Ehud came to him, while he was sitting alone in his cool roof-chamber, and said, ‘I have a message from God for you.’ So he rose from his seat. Then Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into Eglon’s belly; the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the sword out of his belly; and the dirt came out. Then Ehud went out into the vestibule, and closed the doors of the roof-chamber on him, and locked them.
After he had gone, the servants came. When they saw that the doors of the roof-chamber were locked, they thought, ‘He must be relieving himself in the cool chamber.’ So they waited until they were embarrassed. When he still did not open the doors of the roof-chamber, they took the key and opened them. There was their lord lying dead on the floor.
Ehud escaped while they delayed, and passed beyond the sculptured stones, and escaped to Seirah. When he arrived, he sounded the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the Israelites went down with him from the hill country, having him at their head. He said to them, ‘Follow after me; for the LORD has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand.’ So they went down after him, and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, and allowed no one to cross over. At that time they killed about ten thousand of the Moabites, all strong, able-bodied men; no one escaped. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years.

Acts 1:1-14

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over the course of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This’, he said, ‘is what you have heard from me;for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’
So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.

Silence
Response (Ps. 33.18)

The eye of the Lord is upon those who fear him.
The eye of the Lord is upon those who fear him.
On those who wait upon his love.
On those who fear him.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
The eye of the Lord is upon those who fear him.

BENEDICTUS

Benedictus Antiphons: God promised of old* to save us.

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)

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, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: increase and multiply upon us your mercy, that with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

(A suitable hymn)
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.