Cantica Gaudia

Ordinary Time, Early Summer: Monday Noonday Prayer

Opening: Jesus said, "I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

Psalm: Guided by your words
I saw in the world
All the dissolute paths
My steps trod only your byways
And my foot did not slip

So I call on you now
Knowing you will answer—
Incline your ear towards me, hear my words
Show the wonder of your kindness
You who save those who trust you

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: Why do you not think of him as the one who is coming, who has been approaching from all eternity, the one who will someday arrive, the ultimate fruit of a tree whose leaves we are? What keeps you from projecting this birth into the ages that are coming into existence, and living your life as a painful and lovely day in the history of a great pregnancy?

The Lord’s Prayer: Holy One,
We honor your name.
Let the world know your justice
Here as everywhere.
Give us the food we need
For both the body and the soul.
Forgive us the wrongs we do
As we forgive the wrongs of others.
Keep us safe from the evil
At large or of our own making.
We trust you for you made us and
We are yours, now and always.  Amen.

Prayer:  Father of love, through your most Holy Spirit, Mary the Jewish girl conceived your Son; may his beauty, his humanity, his all-transforming grace be born in us, and may we never despise the strange and stirring gentleness of your almighty power. Amen.

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.