Cantica Gaudia

Ordinary Time, Early Summer: Tuesday Compline

Confession: The angels of God guard us through the night, and quiet the powers of darkness.
The Spirit of God be our guide to lead us to peace and to glory.
It is but lost labour that we haste to rise up early, and so late take rest, and eat the bread of anxiety,
For those beloved of God are given gifts even while they sleep.

Our help is in the name of the eternal God, who is making the heavens and the earth.

Dear God, thank you for all that is good, for our creation and our humanity,
For the stewardship you have given us of this planet earth,
For the gifts of life and of one another,
For your love which is unbounded and eternal.

O most holy and beloved One, we repent the wrongs we have done.

We have wounded your love.  O God, heal us.
We stumble in the darkness.  Light of the world, transfigure us.
We forget that we are your home.  Spirit of God, dwell in us.

Eternal Spirit, living God, in whom we live and move and have our being,
All that we are, have been and shall be is known to you,
To the very secret of our hearts and all that rises to trouble us.
Living flame, burn into us
Cleansing wind, blow through us,
Fountain of water, well up within us,
That we may love and praise in deed and in truth.

Canticle: God chose to be our mother in all things
And so made the foundation of his work,
Most humbly and most pure, in the Virgin’s womb.
God, the perfect wisdom of all,
Arrayed himself in this humble place.
Christ came in our poor flesh
To share a mother’s care.
Our mothers bear us for pain and for death;
Our true mother, Jesus, bears us for joy and endless life.
Christ carried us within him in love and travail,
Until the full time of his passion.
And when all was completed and he had carried us so for joy,
Still all this could not satisfy the power of his wonderful love.
All that we owe is redeemed in truly loving God,
For the love of Christ works in us;
Christ is the one whom we love.

Reading: One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice -- though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. "Mend my life!" each voice cried. But you didn't stop. You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible. It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do -- determined to to save the only life you could save.

The Lord’s Prayer: Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
And the power and the glory,
For ever and ever.  Amen.

Prayer: Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work or watch or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ, give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous, and all for your love's sake. Amen.

Going Forth: The arm of the Spirit Holy be ours to shield and surround us and those we love through the coming hours.