Cantica Gaudia

Advent: Saturday Compline

Confession: In God there is forgiveness.

Loving and all-seeing God, forgive us where we have failed to support one another and to be what we claim to be. Forgive us where we have failed to serve you; and where our thoughts and actions have been contrary to yours we ask your pardon.

God forgives us, be at peace.

Canticle: Seek the Lord who is still to be found:
Call upon God who is yet at hand.
Return to the Lord, who will have compassion,
To our God, who will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So my ways higher than your ways,
And my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as the rain and snow come down from heaven
And return not again but water the earth,
Causing the earth to bring forth and sprout,
Giving seed to the sower and bread to the hungry,
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth,
It shall not return to me empty,
But it shall accomplish that which I desire
And achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Reading: Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness,
You that seek the Lord.
Look to the rock from which you were hewn,
And to the quarry from which you were dug.
Look to Abraham  your father
And to Sarah who bore you;
For he was but one when I called him,
But I blessed him and made him many.
For the Lord will comfort Zion;
He will comfort all her waste places,
And will make her wilderness like Eden,
Her desert like the garden of the Lord;
Joy and gladness will be found in her,
Thanksgiving and the voice of song.

Listen to me, my people, and give heed to me, my nation;
For a teaching will got out from me,
And my justice for a light to the peoples.
I will bring near my deliverance swiftly,
My salvation has gone out and my arms will rule the peoples;
The coastlands wait for me, and for my arm they hope.
Life up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath;
For the heavens will vanish like smoke,
The earth will wear out like a garment,
And those who live on it will die like gnats;
But my salvation will be forever,
And my deliverance will never be ended.

The Lord’s Prayer:

Abba our God,
Whom the heavens disclose,
May your name be held holy,
Your authority come.
May your longing be fulfilled
As in heaven, so on earth.
Give us today the bread of tomorrow,
And cancel our debts
As we have already forgiven our debtors.
Do not draw us in
To sinful enticement,
But set us free
From the grip of evil;
For authority and power and glory
Are yours alone, for ever.  Amen.

Prayer: Inhabiter of Dark and Light, you take us once more into yourself, the womb of all creation, where nothing is understood, but all is known. Reveal to us the wholeness promised in Christ before all time; that, rooted in the soil of your unconditional love, we go forth to proclaim with joy the gospel of his coming; evening star, rising sun, energy that shimmers throughout time. Amen.

Going Forth: Stay with us through the darkness, for you are the light that cannot be overcome.