Morning Prayer: Monday 31 March 2025
This is the new revised order for Daily Prayer authorised for experimental use. You can find the 2006 Revised version here.
Week 4 of Lent
Lent
Week 4 of Lent
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: O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you. (Psalm 63.1)
Opening
Glory ...
or a suitable Hymn
(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 ...
or a suitable hymn
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2. I will praise the Lord as long as I live; *
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
3. Put not your trust in rulers, nor in any child of
earth, *
for there is no help in them.
4. When they breathe their last, they return to earth, *
and in that day their thoughts perish.
5. Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help! *
For their hope is in the Lord their God,
6. who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; *
who keeps promises for ever;
7. who gives justice to those who are oppressed, *
food to those who hunger and sets the prisoners free.
8. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind! *
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down and loves the righteous.
9. The Lord cares for the stranger *
and sustains the orphan and widow, but frustrates the way of the wicked
10. The Lord shall reign for ever, *
your God, O Zion, throughout all generations. Hallelujah!
Glory ...
Conclusion
Song of Manasseh Manasseh 1a, 4, 6-7, 9a, 9c, 11-12, 14b, 15b
1. O Lord Almighty and God of our forebears,*
you who made heaven and earth in all their glory:
2. All things tremble with awe at your presence,*
before your great and mighty power.
3. Immeasurable and unsearchable is your promise of mercy,*
for you are God, Most High.
4. You are full of compassion and very merciful,*
and you relent at human suffering.
5. O God, according to your great goodness,*
you have promised repentance and forgiveness to those who have sinned against you.
6. The sins I have committed against you,*
are more in number than the sands of the sea.
7. I am not worthy to look up and see the heavens,*
because of my many sins and iniquities.
8. And now my heart bows before you,*
imploring your kindness upon me.
9. Unworthy as I am, I know that you will save me,*
according to your great mercy.
10. For all the host of heaven sings your praise,*
and your glory is for ever and ever.
Glory ...
O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you.
READING(S)
Jeremiah 14.1-9,17-22
Judah mourns
and her gates languish;
they lie in gloom on the ground,
and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.
Her nobles send their servants for water;
they come to the cisterns,
they find no water,
they return with their vessels empty.
They are ashamed and dismayed
and cover their heads,
because the ground is cracked.
Because there has been no rain on the land
the farmers are dismayed;
they cover their heads.
Even the doe in the field forsakes her newborn fawn
because there is no grass.
The wild asses stand on the bare heights,
they pant for air like jackals;
their eyes fail
because there is no herbage.
Although our iniquities testify against us,
act, O Lord, for your name’s sake;
our apostasies indeed are many,
and we have sinned against you.
O hope of Israel,
its saviour in time of trouble,
why should you be like a stranger in the land,
like a traveller turning aside for the night?
Why should you be like someone confused,
like a mighty warrior who cannot give help?
Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us,
and we are called by your name;
do not forsake us!
You shall say to them this word:
Let my eyes run down with tears night and day,
and let them not cease,
for the virgin daughter—my people—is struck down with a crushing blow,
with a very grievous wound.
If I go out into the field,
look—those killed by the sword!
And if I enter the city,
look—those sick with famine!
For both prophet and priest ply their trade throughout the land,
and have no knowledge.
Have you completely rejected Judah?
Does your heart loathe Zion?
Why have you struck us down
so that there is no healing for us?
We look for peace, but find no good;
for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.
We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord,
the iniquity of our ancestors,
for we have sinned against you.
Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake;
do not dishonour your glorious throne;
remember and do not break your covenant with us.
Can any idols of the nations bring rain?
Or can the heavens give showers?
Is it not you, O Lord our God?
We set our hope on you,
for it is you who do all this.
Romans 7.1-12
In the same way, my friends, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.
What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.
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. I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him, * Father I have sinned against heaven and before you.
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. I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him, * Father I have sinned against heaven and before you.
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 God, grant that we, who are weighed down by our sins,may be relieved and encouraged by your grace;
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.
