Morning Prayer: Saturday 18 December 2021

Saturday 18 December 2021

Saturday after Third Sunday of Advent
Anticipation

Week 3 of Advent

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: Show your servants your works and your splendour to their children. Psalm 90.16

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
or a suitable Hymn
(Or from Psalm 90)

1 Lord, you have been our refuge*
from one generation to another.

2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or the land and the earth were born,*
from age to age you are God.

3 Satisfy us by your loving-kindness in the morning;*
so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.

4 Make us glad by the measure of the days that you afflicted us*
and the years in which we suffered adversity.

Glory to the Father...
or a suitable hymn

Psalm 92
1 It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord,*
and to sing praises to your name, O Most High;

2 To tell of your loving-kindness early in the morning*
and of your faithfulness in the night season;

3 On the psaltery, and on the lyre,*
and to the melody of the harp.

4 For you have made me glad by your acts, O Lord;*
and I shout for joy because of the works of your hands.

5 Lord, how great are your works!*
your thoughts are very deep.

6 The dullard does not know, nor does the fool understand,*
that though the wicked grow like weeds,
and all the workers of iniquity flourish,

7 They flourish only to be destroyed for ever;*
but you, O Lord, are exalted for evermore.

8 For lo, your enemies, O Lord,
lo, your enemies shall perish,*
and all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.

9 But my horn you have exalted like the horns of wild bulls;*
I am anointed with fresh oil.

10 My eyes also gloat over my enemies,*
and my ears rejoice to hear the doom of the wicked who
rise up against me.

11 The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,*
and shall spread abroad like a cedar of Lebanon.

12 Those who are planted in the house of the Lord*
shall flourish in the courts of our God;

13 They shall still bear fruit in old age;*
they shall be green and succulent;
14 That they may show how upright the Lord is,*
my rock, in whom there is no fault.

Glory to the Father...

O Most High, at all times and in all seasons you are worthy of our grateful praise; grant us the insight to perceive the greatness of your works, the certainty of being founded on you our eternal rock, and the wisdom to sing the praises of your name, in and through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Conclusion

Isaiah 2.2-5

1 In days to come, the mountain where the Lord dwells*
will be lifted high above all the mountains
and raised above the hills.
2 All the nations will flock to it;*
countless peoples will come to it.
3 And they will say, Come let us go to the mountain of the Lord,*
to the temple of the God of Jacob,
4. who will teach us his ways,*
and we will walk in his paths;
5. who will sit in judgement over the nations;*
be arbiter among many peoples.
6. They will beat their swords into ploughshares,*
and their spears into sickles;
7. nation shall not lift up sword against nation,*
nor ever again prepare for war.
8. O people of Jacob come,*
let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Glory to the Father...

Antiphon: Show your servants your works, and your splendour to their children.

READING(S)

Genesis 3.8-15

They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.’ Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent tricked me, and I ate.’ The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.’

Revelation 12.1-10

A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, proclaiming, ‘Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah, for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

Silence

Response Psalm (Psalm 96.10)

Tell it out among the nations: 'The Lord is King!'
Tell it out among the nations: 'The Lord is King!'
He will judge the peoples with equity.
The Lord is King.'
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
Tell it out among the nations: 'The Lord is King!'

BENEDICTUS

Benedictus antiphon: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted. (Isaiah 61.1)

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)

Benedictus antiphon: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted. (Isaiah 61.1)

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

Stir up our prayers, Lord, and hear us:
that they who are sorrowful and suffering
may rejoice at the Advent of your only-begotten Son;
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.