Morning Prayer: Saturday 30 March 2019

Saturday 30 March 2019

This is the order for Daily Prayer as revised in 2006. You can find the 2024 revised Daily Prayer for today, authorised for experimental use, here.

Saturday after the Third Sunday of Lent
Returning to God

Week of Lent 3

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: O God, you are my God;* eagerly I seek you. (Ps. 63.1)

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... (may be said by all)

Glory to the Father
or a suitable Hymn
(Or from 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 to the Father...
or a suitable hymn

Psalm 119.73-96

Yodh

73 Your hands have made me and fashioned me;*
give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments.

74 Those who fear you will be glad when they see me,*
because I trust in your word.

75 I know, O Lord, that your judgements are right*
and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.

76 Let your loving-kindness be my comfort*
as you have promised to your servant.

77 Let your compassion come to me, that I may live,*
for your law is my delight.

78 Let the arrogant be put to shame, for they wrong me with lies;*
but I will meditate on your commandments.

79 Let those who fear you turn to me,*
and also those who know your decrees.

80 Let my heart be sound in your statutes,*
that I may not be put to shame.

Kaph

81 My soul has longed for your salvation;*
I have put my hope in your word.

82 My eyes have failed from watching for your promise,*
and I say, When will you comfort me?

83 I have become like a leather flask in the smoke,*
but I have not forgotten your statutes.

84 How much longer must I wait?*
when will you give judgement against those who persecute me?

85 The proud have dug pits for me;*
they do not keep your law.

86 All your commandments are true;*
help me, for they persecute me with lies.

87 They had almost made an end of me on earth,*
but I have not forsaken your commandments.

88 In your loving-kindness, revive me,*
that I may keep the decrees of your mouth.

Lamedh

89 O Lord, your word is everlasting;*
it stands firm in the heavens.

90 Your faithfulness remains from one generation to another;*
you established the earth, and it abides.

91 By your decree these continue to this day,*
for all things are your servants.

92 If my delight had not been in your law,*
I should have perished in my affliction.

93 I will never forget your commandments,*
because by them you give me life.

94 I am yours; oh, that you would save me!*
for I study your commandments.

95 Though the wicked lie in wait for me to destroy me,*
I will apply my mind to your decrees.

96 I see that all things come to an end,*
but your commandment has no bounds.

Glory to the Father...

Lord, you are just and your commandments are eternal. Teach us to love you with all our heart and to love our neighbour as ourselves, for the sake of Jesus our Lord.

Conclusion

Ezekiel 36

1 I will gather you from every country,*
and bring you home to your own land.
2 I will pour clean water over you,*
and cleanse you from your idols.
3 A new heart I will give you,*
and put a new spirit within you.
4 I will take from your body the heart of stone.*
and give you a heart of flesh.
5 I will put my spirit within you.*
and make you walk in my ways and observe my decrees.
6 You will live in the land that I gave to your forebears;*
you will be my people and I will be your God.

Glory to the Father...

O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you.

READING(S)

Jeremiah 13.1-11

Thus said the Lord to me, Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth, and put it on your loins, but do not dip it in water. So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the Lord, and put it on my loins. And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, Take the loincloth that you bought and are wearing, and go now to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock. So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me. And after many days the Lord said to me, Go now to the Euphrates, and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there. Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. But now the loincloth was ruined; it was good for nothing. Then the word of the Lord came to me: Thus says the Lord: Just so I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own will and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing. For as the loincloth clings to ones loins, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord, in order that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. But they would not listen.

Romans 6.12-23

Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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.

BENEDICTUS

Benedictus antiphon:

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:

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

Merciful Father,
we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves:
when we are discouraged by our weakness,
give us strength to follow Christ, our pattern and our hope;
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.