O God, make speed to save us.
AllO Lord, make haste to help us.
From the rising of the sun to its setting
Allyour glory is proclaimed
in all the world.
One or more of the following is said or sung:
this or another prayer of thanksgiving
Blessed are you, Sovereign God,
our light and our salvation,
to you be glory and praise for ever.
You gave your Christ as a light to the nations,
and through the anointing of the Spirit
you established us as a royal priesthood.
As you call us into your marvellous light,
may our lives bear witness to your truth
and our lips never cease to proclaim your praise.
Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
AllBlessed be God for ever.
A Song of God’s Splendour (page 561), the following or another suitable hymn
O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
Bow down before him, his glory proclaim;
with gold of obedience, and incense of lowliness,
kneel and adore him, the Lord is his name!
Low at his feet lay thy burden of carefulness,
high on his heart he will bear it for thee,
comfort thy sorrows, and answer thy prayerfulness,
guiding thy steps as may best for thee be.
Fear not to enter his courts in the slenderness
of the poor wealth thou wouldst reckon as thine:
truth in its beauty, and love in its tenderness,
these are the offerings to lay on his shrine.
These though we bring them in trembling and fearfulness,
he will accept for the name that is dear;
mornings of joy give for evenings of tearfulness,
trust for our trembling and hope for our fear.
O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
Bow down before him, his glory proclaim;
with gold of obedience, and incense of lowliness,
kneel and adore him, the Lord is his name!
J S B Monsell
(Tune: 13 10 13 10)
This opening prayer may be said
That this evening may be holy, good and peaceful,
let us pray with one heart and mind.
Silence is kept.
As our evening prayer rises before you, O God,
so may your mercy come down upon us
to cleanse our hearts
and set us free to sing your praise
now and for ever.
AllAmen.
The appointed psalmody is said.
Refrain: You are
my refuge, O God,
a strong tower against the enemy.
1 Hear my crying, O God, ♦
and listen to my prayer.
2 From the end of the earth I call to you with fainting heart; ♦
O set me on the rock that is higher than I.
3 For you are my refuge, ♦
a strong tower against the enemy.
4 Let me dwell in your tent for ever ♦
and take refuge under the cover of your wings. R
5 For you, O God, will hear my vows; ♦
you will grant the request of those who fear your name.
6 You will add length of days to the life of the king, ♦
that his years may endure throughout all generations.
7 May he sit enthroned before God for ever; ♦
may steadfast love and truth watch over him.
8 So will I always sing praise to your name, ♦
and day by day fulfil my vows.
Refrain: You are
my refuge, O God,
a strong tower against the enemy.
Risen Christ,
as you knew the discipline of suffering
and the victory that brings us salvation,
so grant us your presence in our weakness
and a place in your unending kingdom
now and for evermore.
Refrain: All the earth shall worship you, O Lord.
1 Be joyful in God, all the earth; ♦
sing the glory of his name;
sing the glory of his praise.
2 Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds! ♦
Because of your great strength
your enemies shall bow before you.
3 ‘All the earth shall worship you, ♦
sing to you, sing praise to your name.’ R
4 Come now and behold the works of God, ♦
how wonderful he is in his dealings with humankind.
5 He turned the sea into dry land;
the river they passed through on foot; ♦
there we rejoiced in him.
6 In his might he rules for ever;
his eyes keep watch over the nations; ♦
let no rebel rise up against him. R
7 Bless our God, O you peoples; ♦
make the voice of his praise to be heard,
8 Who holds our souls in life ♦
and suffers not our feet to slip.
9 For you, O God, have proved us; ♦
you have tried us as silver is tried.
10 You brought us into the snare; ♦
you laid heavy burdens upon our backs.
11 You let enemies ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water; ♦
but you brought us out into a place of liberty. R
12 I will come into your house with burnt offerings
and will pay you my vows, ♦
which my lips uttered
and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
13 I will offer you fat burnt sacrifices
with the smoke of rams; ♦
I will sacrifice oxen and goats. R
14 Come and listen, all you who fear God, ♦
and I will tell you what he has done for my soul.
15 I called out to him with my mouth ♦
and his praise was on my tongue.
16 If I had nursed evil in my heart, ♦
the Lord would not have heard me,
17 But in truth God has heard me; ♦
he has heeded the voice of my prayer.
18 Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer, ♦
nor withheld his loving mercy from me.
Refrain: All the earth shall worship you, O Lord.
How generous is your goodness, O God,
how great is your salvation,
how faithful is your love;
help us to trust you in trial
and praise you in deliverance;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Each psalm or group of psalms may end with
AllGlory 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.
If there are two Scripture readings, the first may be read here, or both may be read after the canticle.
Plead with your mother, plead—
for she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband—
that she put away her whoring from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts,
or I will strip her naked
and expose her as in the day she was born,
and make her like a wilderness,
and turn her into a parched land,
and kill her with thirst.
Upon her children also I will have no pity,
because they are children of whoredom.
For their mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers;
they give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
Therefore I will hedge her way with thorns;
and I will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
She shall pursue her lovers,
but not overtake them;
and she shall seek them,
but shall not find them.
Then she shall say, ‘I will go
and return to my first husband,
for it was better with me then than now.’
She did not know
that it was I who gave her
the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished upon her silver
and gold that they used for Baal.
Therefore I will take back
my grain in its time,
and my wine in its season;
and I will take away my wool and my flax,
which were to cover her nakedness.
Now I will uncover her shame
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
I will put an end to all her mirth,
her festivals, her new moons, her sabbaths,
and all her appointed festivals.
I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
of which she said,
‘These are my pay,
which my lovers have given me.’
I will make them a forest,
and the wild animals shall devour them.
I will punish her for the festival days of the Baals,
when she offered incense to them
and decked herself with her ring and jewellery,
and went after her lovers,
and forgot me, says the Lord.
Therefore, I will now persuade her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
From there I will give her her vineyards,
and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she shall respond as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
On that day, says the Lord, you will call me, ‘My husband’, and no longer will you call me, ‘My Baal’.
For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more.
A Song of Praise, or another suitable canticle, for example, number
63 (page 621) or number 71 (page
629), may be said
Refrain:
AllYou created all things,
O God,
and are worthy of our praise for ever. Alleluia.
1You are worthy, our
Lord and God, ♦
to receive glory and honour and power.
2For you have created
all things, ♦
and by your will they have their being.
3You are worthy, O Lamb,
for you were slain, ♦
and by your blood you ransomed for God
saints from every tribe and language and nation.
4You have made them to
be a kingdom and priests
serving our God, ♦
and they will reign with you on earth.
Revelation 4.11; 5.9b, 10
AllTo the One who sits on the
throne and to the Lamb ♦
be blessing and honour and glory and might, for ever and ever. Amen.
AllYou created all things,
O God,
and are worthy of our praise for ever. Alleluia.
One or more readings appointed for the day are read.
The reading(s) may be followed by a time of silence.
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
This is my defence to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to our food and drink? Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? Who at any time pays the expenses for doing military service? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not get any of its milk?
Do I say this on human authority? Does not the law also say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.’ Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Or does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was indeed written for our sake, for whoever ploughs should plough in hope and whoever threshes should thresh in hope of a share in the crop. If we have sown spiritual good among you, is it too much if we reap your material benefits? If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we still more?
Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is sacrificed on the altar? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
A suitable song or chant, or a responsory in this or another form, may follow
Arise, shine, for your light has come;
the glory of the Lord is rising upon you.
AllArise, shine, for your
light has come;
the glory of the Lord is rising upon you.
God’s salvation has been openly shown to all people.
AllThe glory of the Lord
is rising upon you.
Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit.
AllArise, shine, for your
light has come;
the glory of the Lord is rising upon you.
from Isaiah 60
The Magnificat (The Song of Mary) is normally said,
or A Song of Christ’s Appearing
(page 621) may be said
Refrain:
AllBehold, my servant, whom
I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
the anointed one on whom my Spirit rests.
1My soul proclaims the
greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour; ♦
he has looked with favour on his lowly servant.
2From this day all generations
will call me blessed; ♦
the Almighty has done great things for me
and holy is his name.
3He has mercy on those
who fear him, ♦
from generation to generation.
4He has shown strength
with his arm ♦
and has scattered the proud in their conceit,
5Casting down the mighty
from their thrones ♦
and lifting up the lowly.
6He has filled the hungry
with good things ♦
and sent the rich away empty.
7He has come to the aid
of his servant Israel, ♦
to remember his promise of mercy,
8The promise made to our
ancestors, ♦
to Abraham and his children for ever.
Luke 1.46-55
AllGlory 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.
Refrain:
AllBehold, my servant, whom
I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
the anointed one on whom my Spirit rests.
Thanksgiving may be made for the day.
Intercessions are offered
¶ for peace
¶ for individuals and their needs
Prayers may include the following concerns from the cycle on pages 364–365
¶ The unity of the Church
¶ The peace of the world
¶ The healing of the sick
¶ The revelation of Christ to those from whom
his glory is hidden
¶ All who travel
A form of prayer found on page 379 may be used.
These responses may be used
Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer
(or)
Lord, hear us.
Lord, graciously hear us.
Silence may be kept.
The Collect of the day is said
Almighty God,
whose Son revealed in signs and miracles
the wonder of your saving presence:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your mighty power;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
AllAmen.
The Lord’s Prayer is said
Believing the promises of God,
as our Saviour taught us, so we pray
AllOur 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.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen.
(or)
Believing the promises of God,
let us pray with confidence as our Saviour has taught us
AllOur Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
May Christ, who sends us to the nations,
give us the power of his Spirit.
AllAmen.
Let us bless the Lord. Alleluia, alleluia.
AllThanks be to God. Alleluia, alleluia.
©
The Archbishops' Council of the Church of England, 2000-2005
Official Common Worship apps, books and eBooks are available from
Church House Publishing.
The Bible readings (other than the psalms) are from The New Revised Standard Version Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Implemented by Simon Kershaw at
Crucix.
Implementation copyright © Simon Kershaw, 2002-2021.