Evening Prayer: Saturday 1 February 2025

Saturday 1 February 2025

This is the new revised order for Daily Prayer authorised for experimental use. You can find the 2006 Revised version here.

Bride of Kildare, Abbess, c 525
Week C

O God make speed to save us;
O Lord make haste to help us.

Glory to God, Source of all Being, Eternal Word, and Holy Spirit;*
as it was in the beginning, is now, and shall be for ever.
Amen.

PSALMODY

Antiphon: Search me out, O God, and know my heart;* try me and know my restless thoughts.
(Psalm 139.23)

Opening (from Psalm 139)

1. You trace my journeys and my resting-places*
and are acquainted with all my ways.

2. Indeed there is not a word on my lips,*
but you, O Lord, know it altogether.

3. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will cover me,*
and the light around me turn to night’.

4. Darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day;*
darkness and light to you are both alike.

Glory ...
or a suitable Hymn

Psalm 80
1. Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock; *
shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim.

2. In the presence of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, *
stir up your strength and come to help us.



3. Restore us, O God of hosts; *
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

4. O Lord God of hosts, *
how long will you be angered despite the prayers of your people?

5. You have fed them with the bread of tears; *
you have given them bowls of tears to drink.

6. You have made us the derision of our neighbours, *
and our enemies laugh us to scorn.

7. Restore us, O God of hosts; *
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

8. You have brought a vine out of Egypt; *
you cast out the nations and planted it.

9. You prepared the ground for it; *
it took root and filled the land.

10. The mountains were covered by its shadow *
and the towering cedar trees by its boughs.

11. You stretched out its tendrils to the sea *
and its branches to the river.

12. Why have you broken down its wall, *
so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes?

13. The wild boar of the forest has ravaged it, *
and the beasts of the field have grazed upon it.

14. Turn now, O God of hosts, *
look down from heaven;

15. behold and tend this vine; *
preserve what your strong hand has planted.

16. They burn it with fire like rubbish; *
at the rebuke of your countenance let them perish.

17. Let your hand be upon the one at your side in honour, *
the one you have made so strong for yourself.

18. And so will we never turn away from you; *
give us life, that we may call upon your name.

19. Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; *
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

Glory …

Conclusion


A song of Pilgrimage

1. While I was still young, before I began my travels,*
I sought for wisdom openly in my prayers.

2. I asked for wisdom outside the temple sanctuary,*
and I will seek until the end.

3. Wisdom has been the delight of my heart,*
from first blossom to early fruit.

4. I have kept firmly to the true path;*
I have followed in wisdom’s steps since my youth.

5. I bowed my ear a little and received;*
I found wisdom and was well instructed.

6. Glory to the One who gives me wisdom!*
I will live according to God’s way.

7. From the beginning I gained understanding from the Lord;*
therefore I will never be deserted.

8. Because I longed to find wisdom with all my heart,*
I have gained a good possession.

9. As my reward the Lord has given me a tongue*
with which I shall sing God’s praises.

Glory …

Antiphon: Search me out, O God, and know my heart;* try me and know my restless thoughts.

READING(S)

Mark 7.1-23

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.” You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’ Then he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, “Honour your father and your mother”; and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban” (that is, an offering to God)— then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.’ Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’ When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’

Silence

Response Sirach 51.26

Buy wisdom without money, take wisdom’s yoke upon you.
Buy wisdom without money, take wisdom’s yoke upon you.
Let your souls receive instruction.
Take wisdom’s yoke upon you.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit
Buy wisdom without money, take wisdom’s yoke upon you.

SONG OF MARY

Song of Mary Antiphon: The righteous will shine like the sun: * in the kingdom of God.

1 My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
*my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour;
2 for he has looked with favour on his lowly servant;*
from this day all generations will call me blessed.
3 The Almighty has done great things for me*
and holy is his name.
4 He has mercy on those who fear him*
in every generation.
5 He has shown the strength of his arm;*
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
6 He has cast down the mighty from their thrones*
and has lifted up the lowly.
7 He has filled the hungry with good things,*
and the rich he has sent away empty.
8 He has come to the help of his servant Israel,*
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
9 the promise he made to our forebears,*
to Abraham and his children for ever.

Glory to the Father... (may be said by all)

Song of Mary Antiphon: The righteous will shine like the sun: * in the kingdom of God.

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

Almighty and eternal God,
behold us in our weakness:
and stretch out your hands to protect us;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end
Amen

Lord God almighty, come and dispel the darkness from our hearts, that in the radiance of your brightness we may know you, the only unfading light, glorious in all eternity.
Amen.

Let us bless the Lord:
Thanks be to God!

The God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing:
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.