Cantica Gaudia

Ordinary Time, Early Summer: Saturday Morning Prayer

Opening: O God, let our mouths proclaim your praise and your glory all day long.

Canticle: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me
Because the Lord has anointed me
To bring good tidings to the afflicted.
The Lord has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted
To proclaim liberty for the captives
And release for those in prison
To comfort all who mourn
To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes
The oil of gladness instead of mourning
A garment of splendor for the heavy heart.
They shall be called trees of righteousness,
Planted for the glory of the Lord.
Therefore I will greatly rejoice in the Lord
My soul shall exult in my God.
For God has robed me with salvation as a garment
And clothed me with integrity as a cloak.
For as the earth brings forth its shoots
And as a garden causes the seeds to spring up,
So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
To spring forth before all the nations.

Psalm: Hear this warning
O you who would rise up to struggle and question –
Listen to me!

Do not give yourself to what’s limited
Do not strip your soul of its immensity
For I have brought you into the clearing
Out into the open
Out from your narrowness and dimness

Open wide your mouth
And I will fill it up with song
From me the melody unlimited
And from no other thing

Glory to God, who created us, bears our pain, and loves us, now and forever.

Reading: Love must learn by experience to recognize when the secret inward pressure comes from God, and when it really comes from self-will, and we persuade ourselves that it is the push of God. Nothing is more important than that we should faithfully follow our own true spiritual attraction; develop and use the talent given into our care.. It is one thing to make Love's choice, and quite another to stick to it. Nevertheless this is the right way to handle the ground floor life; not eliminating its frictions, but using its capacities...

The Lord’s Prayer: Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
Sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
Now and for ever.  Amen.

Prayer: Father in Heaven! You have loved us first, help us never to forget that You are love so that this sure conviction might triumph in our hearts over the seduction of the world, over the inquietude of the soul, over the anxiety for the future, over the fright of the past, over the distress of the moment.
But grant also that this conviction might discipline our soul so that our heart might remain faithful and sincere in the love which we bear to all those whom You have commanded us to love as we love ourselves. Amen.

Collect:  Loving God, you have led us to this place, not to shield us from heartache and the pain of human life, but to heal us and inspire us, to gently redirect us, till we see the world as you do and love it with your love. Amen.

Going Forth: Peace be among us and within us in all we do.