Morning Prayer: Thursday 11 September 2025
This is the new revised order for Daily Prayer authorised for experimental use. You can find the 2006 Revised version here.
Thursday after Pentecost 13
Season of Creation
Creation Week 1
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 created the heavens and spread out the earth You gave breath to all people and spirit to everything that lives. (Isaiah 42.5)
Opening
Glory ...
or a suitable Hymn
(Or from (Psalm 24.1-4))
1. The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,
the world, and those who live in it;
2. for God has founded it on the seas,
and established it on the rivers.
3. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in God’s holy place?
4. Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,
who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully.
Glory ...
or a suitable hymn
to shame; *
deliver me in your righteousness.
2. Incline your ear to me; *
make haste to deliver me.
3. Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe, for you are
my crag and my stronghold; *
for the sake of your name, lead me and guide me.
4. Take me out of the net that they have secretly set for
me, *
for you are my tower of strength.
5. Into your hands I commend my spirit, *
for you have redeemed me, O Lord, O God of truth.
6. I hate those who cling to worthless idols *
and I put my trust in the Lord.
7. I will rejoice and be glad because of your mercy; *
for you have seen my affliction; you know my distress.
8. You have not shut me up in the power of the enemy; *
you have set my feet in an open place.
9. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; *
my eye is consumed with sorrow, and also my throat
and my belly.
10. For my life is wasted with grief, and my years with
sighing; *
my strength fails me because of affliction, and my
bones are consumed.
11. I have become a reproach to all my enemies and even
to my neighbours,*
a dismay to those of my acquaintance; when they see
me in the street they avoid me.
12. I am forgotten like a corpse, out of mind; *
I am as useless as a broken pot.
13. For I have heard the whispering of the crowd; fear is all
around; *
they put their heads together against me; they plot to
take my life.
14. But as for me, I have trusted in you, O Lord. *
I have said, “You are my God.”
15. My times are in your hand; *
rescue me from the hand of my enemies, and from
those who persecute me.
16. Make your face to shine upon your servant, *
and in your loving-kindness save me.”
17. Lord, let me not be ashamed for having called upon
you; *
rather, let the wicked be put to shame; let them be
silent in the grave.
18. Let the lying lips be silenced which speak against the
righteous, *
haughtily, disdainfully and with contempt.
19. How great is your goodness, O Lord, which you have
laid up for those who fear you; *
which you have done in the sight of all for those who
put their trust in you.
20. You hide them in the covert of your presence from
those who slander them; *
you keep them in your shelter from the strife of
tongues.
21. Blessed are you, O Lord, *
for you have shown me the wonders of your love in abesieged city.
22. Yet I said in my alarm, “I have been cut off from the
sight of your eyes.” *
Nevertheless, you heard the sound of my entreat when
I cried out to you.
23. Love the Lord, all you who worship God; *
the Lord protects the faithful, but repays to the full
those who act haughtily.
24. Be strong and let your heart take courage, *
all you who wait for the Lord.
Glory ...
Conclusion
(Isaiah 24.4-7)
4. The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers; the heavens languish together with the earth.
5. The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants;
for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.
6. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth dwindled, and few people are left.
7. The wine dries up, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh.
Glory ...
O God, you created the heavens and spread out the earth. You gave breath to all people and spirit to everything which lives.
READING(S)
1 Kings 18.1-19
As Obadiah was on the way, Elijah met him; Obadiah recognized him, fell on his face, and said, ‘Is it you, my lord Elijah?’ He answered him, ‘It is I. Go, tell your lord that Elijah is here.’ And he said, ‘How have I sinned, that you would hand your servant over to Ahab, to kill me? As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom to which my lord has not sent to seek you; and when they would say, “He is not here”, he would require an oath of the kingdom or nation, that they had not found you. But now you say, “Go, tell your lord that Elijah is here.” As soon as I have gone from you, the spirit of the Lord will carry you I know not where; so, when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have revered the Lord from my youth. Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred of the Lord’s prophets fifty to a cave, and provided them with bread and water? Yet now you say, “Go, tell your lord that Elijah is here”; he will surely kill me.’ Elijah said, ‘As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.’ So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah.
When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, ‘Is it you, you troubler of Israel?’ He answered, ‘I have not troubled Israel; but you have, and your father’s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. Now therefore have all Israel assemble for me at Mount Carmel, with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.’
Philippians 2.12-30
Do all things without murmuring and arguing, so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world. It is by your holding fast to the word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labour in vain. But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you— and in the same way you also must be glad and rejoice with me.
I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I may be cheered by news of you. I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. All of them are seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But Timothy’s worth you know, how like a son with a father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me; and I trust in the Lord that I will also come soon.
Still, I think it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus—my brother and co-worker and fellow-soldier, your messenger and minister to my need; for he has been longing for all of you, and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. He was indeed so ill that he nearly died. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, so that I would not have one sorrow after another. I am the more eager to send him, therefore, in order that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. Welcome him then in the Lord with all joy, and honour such people, because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for those services that you could not give me.
Silence
Response ((Proverbs 3.19-20))
By your wisdom, O Lord, you founded the earth and established the heavens;
By your wisdom, O Lord, you founded the earth and established the heavens;
By you knowledge the deeps broke open.
You founded the earth and established the heavens;
Glory to God, Source of all Being, Eternal Word and Holy Spirit.
By your wisdom, O Lord, you founded the earth and established the heavens.
SONG OF ZECHARIAH
Song of Zechariah Antiphon: You will guide us with your counsel, O God: * and, after, receive us with glory. O Lord God, you made the heavens and the earth * by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for 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. O Lord God, you made the heavens and the earth * by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for 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
Holy God,Creator of the world and fount of all life,
you never abandon the creatures formed by your wisdom:
remain with us always, we pray,
working for our good,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for 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.
