Thursday of
Proper 12 in Year 1
Evening Prayer
Yours is the day, O God, yours also the night; you established the moon and the sun. You fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter. Psalm 74:15,16
O God, make speed to save us.
O Lord, make haste to help us.
Glory to the
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit
As it was in the
beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Alleluia.
O gracious
light,
pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,
O
Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!
Now as we come to the setting of
the sun,
and our eyes behold the vesper light,
we sing your
praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
You are worthy at
all times to be praised by happy voices,
O Son of God, O Giver of
Life,
and to be glorified through all the worlds.
Psalm 74
1O God, why have you
utterly cast us off? *
why is your wrath so hot against the sheep
of your pasture?
2Remember your congregation that you
purchased long ago, *
the tribe you redeemed to be your
inheritance,
and Mount Zion where you dwell.
3Turn
your steps toward the endless ruins;*
the enemy has laid waste
everything in your sanctuary.
4Your adversaries roared
in your holy place;*
they set up their banners as tokens of
victory.
5They were like men coming up with axes to a
grove of trees;*
they broke down all your carved work with
hatchets and hammers.
6They set fire to your holy
place;*
they defiled the dwelling-place of your Name
and razed
it to the ground.
7They said to themselves, "Let
us destroy them altogether." *
They burned down all the
meeting-places of God in the land.
8There are no signs
for us to see;
there is no prophet left;*
there is not one
among us who knows how long.
9How long, O God, will the
adversary scoff? *
will the enemy blaspheme your Name for
ever?
10Why do you draw back your hand? *
why is
your right hand hidden in your bosom?
11Yet God is my
King from ancient times,*
victorious in the midst of the
earth.
12You divided the sea by your might *
and
shattered the heads of the dragons upon the waters;
13You
crushed the heads of Leviathan *
and gave him to the people of the
desert for food.
14You split open spring and
torrent;*
you dried up ever-flowing rivers.
15Yours
is the day, yours also the night;*
you established the moon and
the sun.
16You fixed all the boundaries of the
earth;*
you made both summer and winter.
17Remember,
O LORD, how the enemy scoffed,*
how a foolish people despised your
Name.
18Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild
beasts; *
never forget the lives of your poor.
19Look
upon your covenant;*
the dark places of the earth are haunts of
violence.
20Let not the oppressed turn away
ashamed;*
let the poor and needy praise your Name.
21Arise,
O God, maintain your cause;*
remember how fools revile you all day
long.
22Forget not the clamor of your adversaries,*
the
unending tumult of those who rise up against you.
Glory to the
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit
as
it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Reading
Mark 7:1-23
Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from
Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his
disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing
them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they
thoroughly wash their hands,*
thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat
anything from the market unless they wash it;*
and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the
washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.*)
So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your
disciples not live*
according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled
hands?’ He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about
you hypocrites, as it is written,
“This people honours me
with their lips,
but their hearts are far
from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching
human precepts as doctrines.”
You abandon the commandment
of God and hold to human tradition.’
Then he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, “Honour your father and your mother”; and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban” (that is, an offering to God*)— then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.’
Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’*
When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
My
soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in
God my Savior; *
for he has looked with favor on his lowly
servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed: *
the
Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He
has mercy on those who fear him *
in every generation.
He has
shown the strength of his arm, *
he has scattered the proud in
their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
*
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with
good things, *
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come
to the help of his servant Israel, *
for he has remembered his
promise of mercy,
The promise he made to our fathers, *
to
Abraham and his children for ever.
Glory to the Father, and to
the Son, and to the Holy Spirit
as it was in the beginning, is
now, and will be for ever. Amen.
I
believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I
believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord.
He was conceived
by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was
buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose
again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right
hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the
dead.
I
believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the
communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection
of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
The
Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us pray.
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.
Save
us from the time of trial,
and deliver us from evil.
For
the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours,
now and for
ever. Amen.
That this evening may be holy, good, and peaceful,
We entreat you, O Lord.
That your holy angels may lead us in paths of peace and goodwill,
We entreat you, O Lord.
That we may be pardoned and forgiven for our sins and offenses,
We entreat you, O Lord.
That there may be peace to your Church and to the whole world,
We entreat you, O Lord.
That
we may depart this life in your faith and fear,
and not be
condemned before the great judgment seat of Christ,
We entreat you, O Lord.
That
we may be bound together by your Holy Spirit in
the communion of
all your saints,
entrusting one another and all our life to
Christ,
We entreat you, O Lord.
Collect of the Day: Pentecost, proper 12
O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
For Protection
O God, the life of all who live, the light of the faithful, the strength of those who labor, and the repose of the dead: We thank you for the blessings of the day that is past, and humbly ask for your protection through the coming night. Bring us in safety to the morning hours; through him who died and rose again for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
For Mission
Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake. Amen.
Let us pray now for our own needs and those of others.
A Prayer of St. Chrysostom
Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen.
Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen.
2
Corinthians 13:14