Cantica Gaudia

Advent: Monday Morning Prayer

Opening: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Canticle: I pray to God who might save me as I hope.
Your help would be a blessing remembered by my successors;
That you would work your will through folk like us.
Your name is holy, because you aid the faithful.
Come in strength to foil the arrogant and deliver the humble.
Those who need you will be supplied.
Those who trust in themselves are deprived of your help.
Help me, oh God; your servant recalls your promises,
To Sarah and her descendants, who laugh at comic reversals!

Psalm: All the earth and all that fills it belongs to you
And the earth and all that lives is yours
For you have arrayed it upon the dark waters
Upon the rivers you have set it firm

Who shall ascend your mountain?
Who shall stand in the place where you stand?

The one with open hands
The one with a quiet heart
The one whose soul is not lifted up with lies
Nor deceit, seduction, or heedlessness.

That one will be moved along with your blessing
Will be fortified with your rightness
And will be kept whole

Antiphon: O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,
reaching from one end to the other mightily, and sweetly ordering all things:

Come and teach us the way of prudence.

Reading: Consider the divine spirit in the human soul.  This spirit is not easily satisfied.  It storms the firmament and scales the heavens trying to reach the Spirit that drives the heavens.  Because of this energy everything in the world grows green, flourishes and bursts into leaf.  But the spirit is never satisfied.  It presses on deeper and deeper into the vortex, further and further into the whirlpool, the primary source in which the spirit has its origin.  This spirit seeks to be broken through by God.  God leads this spirit into a desert, into the wilderness and solitude of the divinity where God is pure unity and where God gushes up within himself.

The Lord’s Prayer:

Seed and source,
Far in the distance and in our souls,
You are holy and make us whole.
May we perceive your divine will
That loved us into being
Help us to join your creative force
And let it prosper here.
Give us what we need to survive,
And release us from our transgressions
As we release others from theirs.
Keep us away from paths of destruction
And from those who would ruin what you have made,
For you are the matrix of life, love and wisdom,
Now and forever.  Amen.

Prayer: Blessed are you, God of growth and discovery; yours is the inspiration that has altered and changed our lives; yours is the power that has brought us to new dangers and opportunities.  Set us, your new creation, to walk through this new world, watching and learning, loving and trusting, until your kingdom comes.  Amen.

Collect: O God, the wellspring of life, pour into our hearts the living water of your grace, that refreshed by you, we may live this day in steadfast reliance on the strength you give; through our Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Going Forth: As God blesses us, may we bless each other in all we do. Amen.