Morning Prayer, 3rd Tuesday in Ordinary Time
Please feel free to pause the service at any point if you would like more time to pray or to reflect.
OPENING SENTENCES
O Lord, open our lips.
And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.
Be willing, O God, to deliver us!
O Lord, come quickly to our help!
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel. (Mark 1:15)
THE GLORIA PATRI
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. AMEN.
THE MORNING PSALM
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known my ways.”
Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest.” (Psalm 95:1-11)
THE PSALTER
Psalm 54
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David, when the Ziphites went and told Saul, “Is not David hiding among us?”
O God, save me by your name,
and vindicate me by your might.
O God, hear my prayer;
give ear to the words of my mouth.
For strangers have risen against me;
ruthless men seek my life;
they do not set God before themselves. Selah
Behold, God is my helper;
the Lord is the upholder of my life.
He will return the evil to my enemies;
in your faithfulness put an end to them.
With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you;
I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.
For he has delivered me from every trouble,
and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.
THE PSALM PRAYER
Almighty God and heavenly Father, who never leaves destitute those who put their trust and confidence in you: So take the cause of your people into your own hand against all our enemies, who are so terrible and so fearful that they may understand that it is against you that they enterprise. Declare also your mercies toward those who help us, so that we all have continual reason to offer up to you sacrifice of thanksgiving. Through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. AMEN.
THE OLD TESTAMENT LESSON
A reading from Isaiah, chapter 48:
“Listen to me, O Jacob,
and Israel, whom I called!
I am he; I am the first,
and I am the last.
My hand laid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I call to them,
they stand forth together.
Assemble, all of you, and listen!
Who among them has declared these things?
The Lord loves him;
he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
I, even I, have spoken and called him;
I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
Draw near to me, hear this:
from the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
from the time it came to be I have been there.”
And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.
Thus says the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you to profit,
who leads you in the way you should go.
Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
your offspring would have been like the sand,
and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
or destroyed from before me.”
Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea,
declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
send it out to the end of the earth;
say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
he made water flow for them from the rock;
he split the rock and the water gushed out.
“There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.” (Isaiah 48:12-22)
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
THE CANTICLE The Song of Hannah
My heart exults in the Lord;
my horn is exalted in the Lord.
My mouth derides my enemies,
because I rejoice in your salvation.
There is none holy like the Lord:
for there is none besides you;
there is no rock like our God.
Talk no more so very proudly,
let not arrogance come from your mouth;
for the Lord is a God of knowledge,
and by him actions are weighed.
The bows of the mighty are broken,
but the feeble bind on strength.
The Lord kills and brings to life;
he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
he brings low and he exalts.
He raises up the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from the ash heap
to make them sit with princes
and inherit a seat of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,
and on them he has set the world.
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth;
he will give strength to his king
and exalt the horn of his anointed.
THE EPISTLE LESSON
A reading from Galatians, chapters 1 and 2:
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they glorified God because of me.
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. (Galatians 1:18-2:10)
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
THE MORNING PRAYERS
The Prayers for Grace
Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our being: We humbly pray that you will so guide and govern us by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our life, we may not forget you, but may remember that we are ever walking in your sight. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.
Loving God, through your Son you have called on all people to repent of their sin, to believe in the Gospel, and to celebrate the coming of your Kingdom. Like Jesus’ first disciples, grant that we may we hear his call to follow him, and, forsaking our own way, proclaim the Good News of peace, happiness, and salvation, found in Christ alone, in whose name we pray. AMEN.
Tuesday Morning Prayers
Lord our God, true Sun of the world, evermore rising, and never going down; who by your most wholesome appearing and light nourishes and makes joyful all things both in heaven and on earth: We beseech you to shine with mercy and favor into our hearts. Drive away the night and darkness of sin, and the mists of error on every side, that we may all our life long go without any stumbling or offense, and may walk as in the daytime, pure and clean from the works of darkness and abounding in all good works which you have prepared for us to walk in; through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.
God of grace, we offer our prayers for the needs of others and commit ourselves to serve them even as we have been served in Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Especially we pray for:
- those close to us, our family, friends, neighbors…
- refugees and homeless men, women, and children…
- the outcast and those who are in prison for conscience sake…
- those from whom we are estranged…
- the Church in Africa…
Personal Thanksgivings and Intercessions
Hear us now, Father, as in the name of Christ, we offer our own thanksgivings and intercessions for those in sickness, grief, persecution, bondage, fear, or loneliness…
Please feel free to pause the service for your personal prayers and thanksgivings for yourself, the Church, your officers, and others.
The Prayers of the Day
O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.
Almighty God, who having made your dear Son Jesus Christ perfect through suffering, has called your people to be his disciples and followers: Fill us, we beseech you, with the same Spirit which was in him, that we, being crucified to the world, may patiently bear the cross. And being renewed in our natures in righteousness and true holiness, and walking in the way of Christ, grant that peace and mercy may be upon us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.
O Merciful God, who according to your divine power has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness: Make us strong in the Lord, in the power of his might; that putting on the whole armor of God, we may be able to resist all the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, praying to you always with fervent prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord, who taught us to pray together:
The Lord’s Prayer
Our 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 debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. AMEN.
THE DISMISSAL
Go forth into the world in peace; be of good courage; hold fast that which is good; render to no one evil for evil; strengthen the fainthearted; support the weak; heal the afflicted; honor all people; love and serve the Lord, rejoicing always in the power of the Holy Ghost. And the blessing of God the Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, preserve and keep you this day and forevermore. AMEN.