Cantica Gaudia

Advent: Wednesday Noonday Prayer

Opening: Lord, open our lips, and our mouths will proclaim your praise.

Psalm: Take notice, you heedless ones!
You doers of thoughtless cruelty
You who mistake your own humanness—

Understand:
When will you wake up?

Do you think that the one who is the hearing of the ear
Does not hear?
Do you think that the one who is the seeing of the eye
Does not see?
Do you think that the one who is profound goodness
Abandons goodness, the brightness of the heart?

Reading: “You can sing sweet and get the song sung,” advised McConnell,
“but to get to the third
dimension you have to sing it
rough, hurt the tune a little.  Put
enough strength to it
that the notes slip.  Then
something else happens.  The song
gets large.”

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:May I invest each word of my spoken prayers
With a whole and sincere heart.
With a heart full of fire,
May I strive to live out all that I pray,
Finding a musician’s delight
In the rhythm and sounds of my prayer words,
Savoring the flavor of an unquenchable love
In my prayers to you, my Beloved.

O Divine Mystery, may I pray best in my closet,
Hidden from view except from you.
May I feel the Spirit’s spur in my side
Speedily rousing me to become my prayer.
May I feel the Spirit’s wind filling my soul
With a holy windmill power.
May I pray not only for what I know I can do
But also for what I would long to do in you.

May my habit of heartfelt prayer
Bring me ever closer to your blessed side.

Going Forth: In the name of the true and living Holy One, who made us for love, who saved us by love, and who loves us still. Amen.