Cantica Gaudia

Advent: Thursday Evening Prayer

Opening: Reveal among us the light of your presence, that we may behold your power and glory.

Canticle: Sing out, my soul,
Sing of the holiness of God:
Who has delighted in a woman,
Lifted up the poor,
Satisfied the hungry,
Given voice to the silent,
Grounded the oppressor,
Blessed the full-bellied with emptiness,
And with the gift of tears 
Those who have never wept;
Who has desired the darkness of the womb
And inhabited our flesh.
Sing of the longing of God,
Sing out, my soul.

Psalm: Who can discern unwitting sins?
O cleanse me from my secret faults.
Keep your servant also from presumptuous sins,
Lest they get the better of me
Then I shall be clean and innocent of great offense.
Let the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart
Be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord my strength and my redeemer.

Antiphon: O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel;
you open and no one can shut;
you shut and no one can open:
Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house,

those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

Reading: Whatever I find if I search will be wrong.
I must wait: sternest trial of all, to sit
Passive, receptive, and patient, empty
Of every demand and desire, until
That other, that being I never would have found
Though I spent my whole life I the quest, will step
From the shadows, approach like a wild, awkward child.

And this will be the longest task: to attend,
To open myself.  To still my energy
Is harder than to use it in any cause.
Yet surely she will only be revealed
By pushing against the grain of my nature
That always yearns for choice.  I feel it painful
And strong as a birth in which there is no pause.

I must hold myself back from every lure of action
To let her come closer, a wary smile on her face,
One arm lifted – to greet me or ward off attack
(I cannot decipher that uncertain gesture).
I must even control the pace of my breath
Until she has drawn her circle near enough
To capture the note of her faint reedy voice.

And then as in dreams, when a language unspoken
Since times before childhood is recalled
(When I was as timid as she, my forgotten sister –
Her presence my completion and reward),
I begin to understand, in fragments, the message
She waited so long to deliver.  Loving her I shall learn
My own secret at last from the words of her song.

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: For whatever in us hears you coming among us, stirring the season, sending the rains, moving the buds, running the robins -- we rejoice and will rejoice, great Lord. For whatever in us sees you going before us, breaking a new path, clearing a troubled mind, awaking a sleeping town, turning our purpose -- we rejoice and will rejoice, good Lord. For whatever in us touches you standing among us, shaping our prayers, healing our sick, breaking our evil, giving us vision -- we rejoice and will rejoice, dear Lord. Praise is in us. Magnify that praise. Amen.

Collect: Holy God, we magnify your name for calling the blessed Virgin Mary to bear your Word of hope to the poor, the hungry, and those who have no voice. Give us grace and strength to proclaim your Good News in every age, with every tongue; through Jesus Christ our Savior, in the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Going Forth: May God's grace warm and strengthen us in all good works. Amen.