Cantica Gaudia

Advent: Wednesday Morning Prayer

Opening:  Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.

Canticle: The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
The desert shall rejoice and blossom;
It shall blossom abundantly,
And rejoice with joy and singing.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
The majesty of our God.
Strengthen the weary hands,
And make firm the feeble knees.
Say to the anxious, “Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God, coming with judgment to save you.”
Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened,
And the ears of the deaf be unstopped.
Than shall the lame leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness
And streams in the desert;
The burning sand shall become a pool
And the thirsty ground, springs of water.
The ransomed of God shall return with singing,
With everlasting joy upon their heads.
Joy and gladness shall be theirs,
And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Psalm: Shine your light on action
O shine your light

Dawn, rise up, illuminate, make clear
Brighten for the eye of the heedless
The darkness of their conduct
The effluent consequence of what they do

How long shall they exult?
How long shall their speech sputter noisily
Words that clash in the ear?

Antiphon: O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples;
before you kings will shut their mouths, to you the nations will make their prayer:

Come and deliver us, and delay no longer

Reading: A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
And a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and might,
The spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
Or decide by what his ears hear;
But with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
And with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
And faithfulness the belt around his loins.
The wolf shall live with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the kid,
The calf and the lion and the fatling together,
And a little child shall lead them.

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: I pray for the entire creation,
For the generation which is now alive,
For that which is just coming to life,
And for that which shall be hereafter.
And I pray for that sanctity which leads to prosperity,
And which has long afforded shelter,
Which goes hand in hand with it,
Which joins it in its walk,
And of itself becoming its close companion as it delivers forth its precepts,
Bearing every form of healing virtue which comes to us.
And so, the greatest, and the best, and the most beautiful benefits of sanctity
Fall likewise to our lot.

Collect: God of impossible love, you needed Mary to give consent, to bear the scandal, to carry your word within herself: may her courage give hope to women and men who yearn to sing new songs of justice and find the world a dwelling place for God, through Jesus Christ, the one who is to come.

Going Forth: Glory to God, whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine; glory to God from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.