Morning Prayer: Thursday 18 September 2025

Thursday 18 September 2025

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.

Thursday after Pentecost 14
Season of Creation

Creation Week 2

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 created the heavens and spread out the earth You gave breath to all people and spirit to everything which walks on the earth. (Isaiah 42.5)

Opening

Glory to the Father
or a suitable Hymn
(Or from (Psalm 95.3-6))

The Lord is a great God, and a sovereign above all gods.
In God’s hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are God’s also.
The sea is God’s, for God made it, and God’s hand formed the dry land.
O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

Glory to the Father...
or a suitable hymn

Psalm 98

1 Sing to the Lord a new song,*
for he has done marvellous things.

2 With his right hand and his holy arm*
has he won for himself the victory.

3 The Lord has made known his victory;*
his righteousness has he openly shown in
the sight of the nations.

4 He remembers his mercy and faithfulness to the house of Israel,*
and all the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.

5 Shout with joy to the Lord, all you lands;*
lift up your voice, rejoice, and sing.

6 Sing to the Lord with the harp,*
with the harp and the voice of song.

7 With trumpets and the sound of the horn*
shout with joy before the King, the Lord.

8 Let the sea make a noise and all that is in it,*
the lands and those who dwell therein.

9 Let the rivers clap their hands,*
and let the hills ring out with joy before the Lord,
when he comes to judge the earth.

10 In righteousness shall he judge the world*
and the peoples with equity.

Glory to the Father...

Lord God, we see your righteous rule in all your works, and we join our voices with the song of your whole creation in praising you, in and through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Conclusion

(Amos 9.5-6)

The Lord, God of hosts, touches the earth and it melts,
and all who live in it mourn.
And all of it rises like the Nile, and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
The Lord builds upper chambers in the heavens,
and founds vault upon the earth;
And calls for the waters of the sea,
and pours them out upon the surface of the earth

Glory to the Father...

Antiphon: O God, you created the heavens and spread out the earth You gave breath to all people and spirit to everything which walks on the earth.

READING(S)

1 Kings 22.29-45

So the king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead. The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, ‘I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you wear your robes.’ So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle. Now the king of Aram had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, ‘Fight with no one small or great, but only with the king of Israel.’ When the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, ‘It is surely the king of Israel.’ So they turned to fight against him; and Jehoshaphat cried out. When the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him. But a certain man drew his bow and unknowingly struck the king of Israel between the scale-armour and the breastplate; so he said to the driver of his chariot, ‘Turn around, and carry me out of the battle, for I am wounded.’ The battle grew hot that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans, until at evening he died; the blood from the wound had flowed into the bottom of the chariot. Then about sunset a shout went through the army, ‘Every man to his city, and every man to his country!’ So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; they buried the king in Samaria. They washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria; the dogs licked up his blood, and the prostitutes washed themselves in it, according to the word of the Lord that he had spoken. Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house that he built, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel? So Ahab slept with his ancestors; and his son Ahaziah succeeded him. Jehoshaphat son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of King Ahab of Israel. Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi. He walked in all the way of his father Asa; he did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord; yet the high places were not taken away, and the people still sacrificed and offered incense on the high places. Jehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel. Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his power that he showed, and how he waged war, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?

1 Corinthians 2.14-3.15

Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are discerned spiritually. Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny. ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ. And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? For when one says, ‘I belong to Paul’, and another, ‘I belong to Apollos’, are you not merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labour of each. For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. If the work is burned, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire.

Silence

Response Psalm ((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.

BENEDICTUS

Benedictus antiphon: God’s hand laid the foundation of the earth. God’s right hand spread out the heavens. (Isaiah 48.13)

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: God’s hand laid the foundation of the earth. God’s right hand spread out the heavens. (Isaiah 48.13)

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

God the Creator,
in Christ you call all people
to the fullness of glory
for which you created us in your image:
heal our hardened hearts,
renew our obedience to your will,
and conform our lives to your gracious design,
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.