Cantica Gaudia

Ordinary Time, Early Summer: Monday Morning Prayer

Opening: The earth is the Lord's, and all that is in it.

Canticle: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
God’s mercies never come to an end,
They are new every morning.
Your faithfulness, O Lord, is great.
You are all that I have,
And therefore I will wait for you.
You, O Lord, are good to those who wait for you,
To all those who seek you.
It is good to wait in patience
For the salvation of the Lord.

Psalm: Up toward you
I lift my eyes.
Look!
As manservants raise eyes toward masters
As maidservants raise eyes toward mistresses
Humble and expectant
In reflected gratefulness
So do we direct our gaze
Up to you

Reflect in our souls your clear light
Enlarge our hearts

For we are diminished and dimmed with the world’s opinions
Diminished and dimmed with possession and worry
With accomplishment’s undertow
With reputation’s crazy wind
Oppressed by the disdaining other
Inside and out

Glory to God, who made us, who bears our pain, and who loves us,
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.  Amen.

Reading: My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird— equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old?  Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect?  Let me keep my mind on what matters,
Which is my work,

Which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,

Which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart and these body-clothes,
A mouth with which to give shouts of joy
To the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
Telling them all, over and over, how it is
That we live forever.

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: O God of celebration,
You have kept the good wine until now –
The wine that we have longed for,
But never thought to taste.
Take the tapwater of our lives –
Our struggles and our dullness –
And with your grace
Make strong and dark and joyful
All that our hearts contain,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Collect: Everlasting God, you sent to us your Holy Spirit, root of all being, absolver of all faults, balm of all wounds: infuse our hearts with your unquenchable fire, that we may be filled with passion for your gospel; in the name of the Source, the Word, and the Spirit. Amen.

Going Forth: May God the Holy Spirit, by whose working the Virgin Mary conceived the Christ, help us bear the fruits of holiness. Amen.