O God, make speed to save us.
AllO Lord, make haste to help us.
Your faithful servants bless you.
AllThey make known the
glory of your kingdom. Alleluia.
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.
Now, as darkness is falling,
wash away our transgressions,
cleanse us by your refining fire
and make us temples of your Holy Spirit.
By the light of Christ,
dispel the darkness of our hearts
and make us ready to enter your kingdom,
where songs of praise for ever sound.
Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
AllBlessed be God for ever.
A Song of Tobit (page 596), the following or another suitable hymn
Give me the wings of faith to rise
within the veil, and see
the saints above, how great their joys,
how bright their glories be.
Once they were mourning here below,
and wet their couch with tears;
they wrestled hard, as we do now,
with sins and doubts and fears.
I ask them whence their victory came:
they, with united breath,
ascribe their conquest to the Lamb,
their triumph to his death.
They marked the footsteps that he trod,
his zeal inspired their breast,
and, following their incarnate God,
possess the promised rest.
Our glorious Leader claims our praise
for his own pattern given;
while the long cloud of witnesses
show the same path to heaven.
Isaac Watts
(Tune: CM)
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: My soul waits for the Lord.
1 Out of the depths have I cried to you, O Lord;
Lord, hear my voice; ♦
let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication.
2 If you, Lord, were to mark what is done amiss, ♦
O Lord, who could stand?
3 But there is forgiveness with you, ♦
so that you shall be feared. R
4 I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him; ♦
in his word is my hope.
5 My soul waits for the Lord,
more than the night watch for the morning, ♦
more than the night watch for the morning. R
6 O Israel, wait for the Lord, ♦
for with the Lord there is mercy;
7 With him is plenteous redemption ♦
and he shall redeem Israel from all their sins.
Refrain: My soul waits for the Lord.
Father, we commend to your faithful love
those who are crying from the depths;
help them to watch and pray
through their time of darkness,
in sure hope of the dawn of your
forgiveness and redemption;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Refrain: O Israel, trust in the Lord.
1 O Lord, my heart is not proud; ♦
my eyes are not raised in haughty looks.
2 I do not occupy myself with great matters, ♦
with things that are too high for me.
3 But I have quieted and stilled my soul,
like a weaned child on its mother’s breast; ♦
so my soul is quieted within me.
4 O Israel, trust in the Lord, ♦
from this time forth for evermore.
Refrain: O Israel, trust in the Lord.
Eternal God,
calm and quieten our souls;
keep us humble and full of wonder
and trusting as we live in your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Refrain: O pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
1 By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, ♦
when we remembered Zion.
2 As for our lyres, we hung them up ♦
on the willows that grow in that land.
3 For there our captors asked for a song,
our tormentors called for mirth: ♦
‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’ R
4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song ♦
in a strange land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, ♦
let my right hand forget its skill.
6 Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you, ♦
if I set not Jerusalem above my highest joy. R
7 Remember, O Lord, against the people of Edom
the day of Jerusalem, ♦
how they said, ‘Down with it, down with it,
even to the ground.’
8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, ♦
happy the one who repays you
for all you have done to us;
9 Who takes your little ones, ♦
and dashes them against the rock.
Refrain: O pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
God of our pilgrimage,
you sent your Son to our strange land
to bring us home to you;
give us your songs to sing,
that even in our exile
we may be filled with the breath of the Spirit
of 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.
Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I have heard your prayer to me about King Sennacherib of Assyria.
This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:
She despises you, she scorns you—
virgin daughter Zion;
she tosses her head—behind your back,
daughter Jerusalem.
‘Whom have you mocked and reviled?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and haughtily lifted your eyes?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
By your messengers you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, “With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon;
I felled its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses;
I entered its farthest retreat,
its densest forest.
I dug wells
and drank foreign waters,
I dried up with the sole of my foot
all the streams of Egypt.”
‘Have you not heard
that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
what now I bring to pass,
that you should make fortified cities
crash into heaps of ruins,
while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and confounded;
they have become like plants of the field
and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
blighted before it is grown.
‘But I know your rising and your sitting,
your going out and coming in,
and your raging against me.
Because you have raged against me
and your arrogance has come to my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth;
I will turn you back on the way
by which you came.
‘And this shall be the sign for you: This year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that; then in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. The surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downwards, and bear fruit upwards; for from Jerusalem a remnant shall go out, and from Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
‘Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city, shoot an arrow there, come before it with a shield, or cast up a siege-ramp against it. By the way that he came, by the same he shall return; he shall not come into this city, says the Lord. For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.’
That very night the angel of the Lord set out and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians; when morning dawned, they were all dead bodies. Then King Sennacherib of Assyria left, went home, and lived at Nineveh.
A Song of God’s Assembled, or another suitable canticle, for example, number 70 (page 628) or number 73 (page 631), may be said
Refrain:
AllWe have come before the
throne of God
to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Alleluia.
1We have come before
God’s holy mountain, ♦
to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.
2We have come before
countless angels making festival, ♦
before the assembly of the firstborn citizens of heaven.
3We have come before
God, who is judge of all, ♦
before the spirits of the just made perfect.
4We have come before
Jesus, ♦
the mediator of the new covenant.
5We are receiving a kingdom
that cannot be shaken: ♦
so let us give thanks and offer to God acceptable worship,
6Full of reverence and
awe; ♦
for our God is a consuming fire.
Hebrews 12.22-24a, 28, 29
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.
AllWe have come before the
throne of God
to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Alleluia.
One or more readings appointed for the day are read.
The reading(s) may be followed by a time of silence.
Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.
To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard.
Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh—even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.
If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.
Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
A suitable song or chant, or a responsory in this or another form, may follow
Lord, you will guide me with your counsel
and afterwards receive me with glory.
AllLord, you will guide
me with your counsel
and afterwards receive me with glory.
For I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
AllAnd afterwards receive
me with glory.
Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit.
AllLord, you will guide
me with your counsel
and afterwards receive me with glory.
from Psalm 73
The Magnificat (The Song of Mary) is normally said,
or the Nunc dimittis (The Song of
the Simeon) (page 613) may be said
Refrain:
All
The saints cried out with a loud voice:
Salvation to our God who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.
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:
All
The saints cried out with a loud voice:
Salvation to our God who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.
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 saints on earth, that they may live as
citizens of heaven
¶ All people, that they may hear and believe
the word of God
¶ All who fear the winter months
¶ All sovereigns and political leaders, that
they may imitate the righteous rule of Christ
¶ All who grieve or wait with the dying
A form of prayer found on page 384 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,
you have knit together your elect
in one communion and fellowship
in the mystical body of your Son Christ
our Lord:
grant us grace so to follow your blessed saints
in all virtuous and godly living
that we may come to those inexpressible joys
that you have prepared for those who truly love you;
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
Uniting our prayers with the whole company of heaven,
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)
Uniting our prayers with the whole company of heaven,
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 has opened the kingdom of heaven,
bring us to reign with him in glory.
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.