Saturday –
Year 1 Proper 25
Morning Prayer
The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. John 4:23
Versicle and Response
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 will be for ever. Amen. Alleluia.
Jubilate
Be joyful in the
Lord, all you lands; *
serve the Lord with
gladness
and come before his presence with a
song.
Know this: The
Lord himself is God; *
he himself has made us,
and we are his;
we are his people and the
sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates
with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise; *
give thanks to him and call upon his Name.
For the Lord is
good;
his mercy is everlasting; *
and his
faithfulness endures from age to age.
55
1
Hear my prayer, O God; *
do not hide yourself from my petition.
2
Listen to me and answer me; *
I have no peace, because of my
cares.
3 I am shaken by the noise of the enemy *
and by the
pressure of the wicked;
4 For they have cast an evil spell
upon me *
and are set against me in fury.
5 My heart quakes
within me, *
and the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
6
Fear and trembling have come over me, *
and
horror overwhelms me.
7 And I said, "Oh, that I had wings
like a dove! *
I would fly away and be at rest.
8 I would
flee to a far-off place *
and make my lodging in the
wilderness.
9 I would hasten to escape *
from the stormy
wind and tempest."
10 Swallow them up, O Lord;
confound
their speech; *
for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
11 Day and night
the watchmen make their rounds
upon her walls, *
but trouble
and misery are in the midst of her.
12 There is corruption at
her heart; *
her streets are never free of oppression and
deceit.
13 For had it been an adversary who taunted me,
then
I could have borne it; *
or had it been an enemy who vaunted
himself against me,
then I could have hidden from him.
14
But it was you, a man after my own heart, *
my companion, my own
familiar friend.
15 We took sweet counsel together, *
and
walked with the throng in the house of God.
16 Let death come
upon them suddenly;
let them go down alive into the grave; *
for
wickedness is in their dwellings, in their very midst.
17 But
I will call upon God, *
and the Lord will deliver me.
18 In
the evening, in the morning, and at noonday,
I will complain and
lament, *
and he will hear my voice.
19 He will bring me
safely back from the battle waged against me; *
for there are many
who fight me.
20 God, who is enthroned of old, will hear me
and bring them down; *
they never change; they do not fear
God.
21 My companion stretched forth his hand against his
comrade; *
he has broken his covenant.
22 His speech is
softer than butter, *
but war is in his heart.
23 His words
are smoother than oil, *
but they are drawn swords.
24 Cast
your burden upon the Lord,
and he will sustain you; *
he will
never let the righteous stumble.
25 For you will bring the
bloodthirsty and deceitful *
down to the pit of destruction, O
God.
26 They shall not live out half their days, *
but I
will put my trust in 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.
*Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he mocked the Jews. He said in the presence of his associates and of the army of Samaria, ‘What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore things? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish it in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish—and burnt ones at that?’ Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, ‘That stone wall they are building—any fox going up on it would break it down!’ Hear, O our God, for we are despised; turn their taunt back on their own heads, and give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. Do not cover their guilt, and do not let their sin be blotted out from your sight; for they have hurled insults in the face of the builders.
So we rebuilt the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height; for the people had a mind to work.
*But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and the gaps were beginning to be closed, they were very angry, and all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. So we prayed to our God, and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.
But Judah said, ‘The strength of the burden-bearers is failing, and there is too much rubbish, so that we are unable to work on the wall.’ And our enemies said, ‘They will not know or see anything before we come upon them and kill them and stop the work.’ When the Jews who lived near them came, they said to us ten times, ‘From all the places where they live* they will come up against us.’* So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people according to their families,* with their swords, their spears, and their bows. After I looked these things over, I stood up and said to the nobles and the officials and the rest of the people, ‘Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your kin, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.’
When our enemies heard that their plot was known to us, and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his work. From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and body-armour; and the leaders posted themselves behind the whole house of Judah, who were building the wall. The burden-bearers carried their loads in such a way that each laboured on the work with one hand and with the other held a weapon. And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. And I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, ‘The work is great and widely spread out, and we are separated far from one another on the wall. Rally to us wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet. Our God will fight for us.’
So we laboured at the work, and half of them held the spears from break of dawn until the stars came out. I also said to the people at that time, ‘Let every man and his servant pass the night inside Jerusalem, so that they may be a guard for us by night and may labour by day.’ So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me ever took off our clothes; each kept his weapon in his right hand.*
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Canticle 12 A Song of Creation
Invocation
Glorify the Lord,
all you works of the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for
ever.
In the firmament
of his power, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him
for ever.
I The Cosmic Order
Glorify the Lord,
you angels and all powers of the Lord, *
O heavens and all waters
above the heavens.
Sun and moon and
stars of the sky, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt
him for ever.
Glorify the Lord,
every shower of rain and fall of dew, *
all winds and fire and
heat.
Winter and
Summer, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for
ever.
Glorify the Lord,
O chill and cold, *
drops of dew and flakes of snow.
Frost and cold,
ice and sleet, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him
for ever.
Glorify the Lord,
O nights and days, *
O shining light and enfolding dark.
Storm clouds and
thunderbolts, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him
for ever.
II The Earth and its Creatures
Let the earth
glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
Glorify the Lord,
O mountains and hills,
and all that grows upon the earth, *
praise
him and highly exalt him for ever.
Glorify the Lord,
O springs of water, seas, and streams, *
O whales and all that
move in the waters.
All birds of the
air, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
Glorify the Lord,
O beasts of the wild, *
and all you flocks and herds.
O men and women
everywhere, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him
for ever.
III The People of God
Let the people of
God glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.
Glorify the Lord,
O priests and servants of the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt
him for ever.
Glorify the Lord,
O spirits and souls of the righteous, *
praise him and highly
exalt him for ever.
You that are holy
and humble of heart, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly
exalt him for ever.
Doxology
Let us glorify
the Lord: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; *
praise him and highly
exalt him for ever.
In the firmament
of his power, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him
for ever.
And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel:
From the tribe of Judah twelve thousand sealed,
from the tribe
of Reuben twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Gad twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Asher twelve thousand,
from the tribe of
Naphtali twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Manasseh twelve
thousand,
from the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand,
from the tribe of
Levi twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand,
from the tribe of
Joseph twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand
sealed.
After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one
could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and
languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in
white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud
voice, saying,
‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated
on the throne, and to the Lamb!’
And all the angels stood
around the throne and around the elders and the four living
creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and
worshipped God, singing,
‘Amen! Blessing and glory
and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honour
and power and
might
be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these,
robed in white, and where have they come from?’ I said to him,
‘Sir, you are the one that knows.’ Then he said to me,
‘These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they
have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
For this reason they are before the throne of God,
and
worship him day and night within his temple,
and
the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
They will
hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will
not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
for
the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd,
and
he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will
wipe away every tear from their eyes.’
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
O ruler of the
universe, Lord God,
great deeds are they that you have done,
*
surpassing human understanding.
Your ways are ways of
righteousness and truth, *
O King of all the
ages
Who can fail to do you homage, Lord
and sing the praises
of your Name
for you only are the Holy One.
All nations will
draw near and fall down before you
because your just and holy
works have been revealed.
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.
Save your people, Lord, and bless your inheritance;
Govern and uphold them, now and always.
Day by day we bless you;
We praise your name for ever.
Lord, keep us from all sin today;
Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy.
Lord, show us your love and mercy;
For we put our trust in you.
In you, Lord, is our hope;
And we shall never hope in vain.
Collect of the Day: Pentecost, proper 25
Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain what you promise, make us love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
A Collect for Saturdays
Almighty God, who after the creation of the world rested from all your works and sanctified a day of rest for all your creatures: Grant that we, putting away all earthly anxieties, may be duly prepared for the service of your sanctuary, and that our rest here upon earth may be a preparation for the eternal rest promised to your people in heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
For Mission
O God and Father of all, whom the whole heavens adore: Let the whole earth also worship you, all nations obey you, all tongues confess and bless you, and men and women everywhere love you and serve you in peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Let us pray now for our own needs and those of others.
General Thanksgiving
Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. 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