Cantica Gaudia

Ordinary Time, Early Summer: Sunday Evening Prayer

Opening:  Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Canticle: Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe.
To you be glory and praise for ever.
From the rising of the sun to its setting
your name is proclaimed in all the world.
To you be glory and praise for ever.
When the time had fully come
you sent the Sun of Righteousness.
In him the fullness of your glory dwells.
To you be glory and praise for ever.

Psalm: It is good to thank you, good to pronounce your unsayable name
With morning’s light to remember your kindness
With night’s sky to think of your faithful heart
To sing of it with music of the ten-stringed instrument
With the psaltery, with the harp

Because you are at work in what is I rejoice
And the physical world your hands have made
Animates in my body your preciousness

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

Reading: We have not come here to take prisoners, but to surrender even more deeply to freedom and joy.

We have not come into this exquisite world to hold ourselves hostage from love.

Run my dear, from anything that may not strengthen your precious budding wings.

Run like hell my dear, from anyone likely to put a sharp knife into the sacred, tender vision of your beautiful heart.

We have a duty to befriend those aspects of obedience that stand outside of our house and shout to our reason "O please, o please, come out and play."

For we have not come here to take prisoners or to confine our wondrous spirits, but to experience ever and ever more deeply our divine courage, freedom and light.

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: Christ Jesus, enable us to forge a steadfast heart to remain faithful to you. Risen Lord, you send upon us the light of your forgiveness. That is the perfect gift. And for each person, to dare to forgive awakens God’s joy in us. Amen.

Collect: Enfolding God, Trinity of love, you are our source, our goal, our life: may we be born again in you, no more to live alone and unconnected, but sharing in the Spirit's breath and carried to your heart, through Jesus Christ, who lifts us up. Amen.

Going Forth: May the God who dances in creation, who embraces us with human love, who shakes our lives like thunder, bless us and drive us out with power to fill the world with her justice. Amen.