Morning Prayer: Friday 18 April 2025
This is the new revised order for Daily Prayer authorised for experimental use. You can find the 2006 Revised version here.
Good Friday
Lent
Good Friday
O Lord, open our lips:
and our mouth shall proclaim your praise.
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.
Amen.
PSALMODY
Antiphon:
Opening
Glory ...
or a suitable Hymn
(Or from Psalm 86)
1. Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord,*
nor anything like your works.
2. All nations you have made will come and worship you, O Lord,*
and glorify your name.
3. For you are great; you do wondrous things;*
and you alone are God.
4. Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth;*
knit my heart to you that I may fear your name.
Glory ...
or a suitable hymn
who stooped to me and heard my cry.
2. God lifted me out of the desolate pit, out of the mire
and clay, *
and set my feet on a high cliff and made my footing
sure.
3. God put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to
our God; *
many shall see, and stand in awe, and put their trust in
the Lord.
4. Happy are they who trust in the Lord! *
they do not resort to evil spirits or turn to false gods.
5. Great things are they that you have done, O Lord my
There is none who can be compared with you. *
Oh, that I could make them known and tell them, but
they are more than I can count.
6. In sacrifice and offering you take no pleasure *
(you have given me ears to hear you); burnt-offering
and sin-offering you have not required.
7. And so I said, “Behold, I come. *
In the roll of the book it is written concerning me:
8. ‘I love to do your will, O my God; *
your law is deep within my heart.’”
9. I proclaimed righteousness in the great congregation; *
behold, I did not restrain my lips; and that, O Lord, you
know
10. Your righteousness have I not hidden in my heart; I
have spoken of your faithfulness and your
deliverance; *
I have not concealed your love and faithfulness from
the great congregation.
11. You are the Lord; do not withhold your compassion
from me; *
let your love and your faithfulness keep me safe for
ever.
12. For innumerable troubles have crowded upon me; my
sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see; *
they are more in number than the hairs of my head,
God! how great your wonders and your plans for us!
and my heart fails me.
13. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; *
O Lord, make haste to help me.
14. Let them be ashamed and altogether dismayed who
seek after my life to destroy it; *
let them draw back and be disgraced who take pleasure
in my misfortune.
15. Let those who say “Aha!” and gloat over me be
confounded, *
because they are ashamed.
16. Let all who seek you rejoice in you and be glad; *
let those who love your salvation continually say,
“Great is the Lord!”
17. Though I am poor and afflicted, *the Lord will have
regard for me.
You are my helper and my deliverer; *do not tarry, O
my God.
Glory ...
Conclusion
Lamentations 3
1. Remember my affliction and bitterness;*
the wormwood and the gall!
2. My soul continually thinks of it;*
and is bowed down within me.
3. But this I call to mind,*
and therefore I have hope –
4. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;*
God’s mercies never come to an end.
5. They are new every morning;*
great is God’s faithfulness.
6. ‘The Lord is my portion’, says my soul:*
‘therefore I will hope in God.’
Glory ...
O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you.
READING(S)
Wisdom of Solomon 1.16-2.1,12-22
considering him a friend, they pined away
and made a covenant with him,
because they are fit to belong to his company.
For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves,
‘Short and sorrowful is our life,
and there is no remedy when a life comes to its end,
and no one has been known to return from Hades.
‘Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,
because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;
he reproaches us for sins against the law,
and accuses us of sins against our training.
He professes to have knowledge of God,
and calls himself a child of the Lord.
He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;
the very sight of him is a burden to us,
because his manner of life is unlike that of others,
and his ways are strange.
We are considered by him as something base,
and he avoids our ways as unclean;
he calls the last end of the righteous happy,
and boasts that God is his father.
Let us see if his words are true,
and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;
for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him,
and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.
Let us test him with insult and torture,
so that we may find out how gentle he is,
and make trial of his forbearance.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death,
for, according to what he says, he will be protected.’
Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray,
for their wickedness blinded them,
and they did not know the secret purposes of God,
nor hoped for the wages of holiness,
nor discerned the prize for blameless souls;
1 Peter 1.10-20
Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’
If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake.
John 13.36-38
Silence
Response ((Psalm 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.
SONG OF ZECHARIAH
Song of Zechariah Antiphon: You will guide us with your counsel, O God: * and, after, receive us with glory. We proclaim Christ, * nailed to the cross.
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.
Song of Zechariah Antiphon: You will guide us with your counsel, O God: * and, after, receive us with glory. We proclaim Christ, * nailed to the cross.
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,look with mercy on this your family,
for which our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed,
given up into the hands of sinners,
and to suffer death upon the cross;
who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
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.
