Cantica Gaudia

Season of Easter: Wednesday Noonday Prayer

Opening: You who shine in all that's fair, season our works with your love.

Psalm: You are my shepherd, I am content
You lead me to rest in the sweet grasses
To lie down by the quiet waters
And I am refreshed

You lead me down the right path
The path that unwinds in the pattern of your name

And even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will not fear
For you are with me
Comforting me with your rod and your staff
Showing me each step

You prepare a table for me
In the midst of my adversity
And moisten my head with oil

Surely my cup is overflowing
And goodness and kindness will follow me
All the days of my life
And in the long days beyond
I will always live within your house

Reading: I cannot dance, O Lord,
Unless you lead me.
If you wish me to leap joyfully,
Let me see you dance and sing –

Then I will leap into Love—
And from Love into Knowledge,
And from Knowledge into the Harvest,
That sweetest fruit beyond human sense.

There I will stay with you, whirling.

The Lord’s Prayer: Ground of all being, Mother of life, Father of the universe,
Your name is sacred, beyond speaking.
May we know your presence.
May your longings be our longings
in heart and in action.
May there be food for the human family today
and for the whole earth community.
Forgive us the falseness of what we have done
as we forgive those who are untrue to us.
Do not forsake us in our time of conflict
but lead us into new beginnings.
For the light of life, the vitality of life, and the glory of life
are yours now and for ever.
Amen.

Prayer: O leafy branch, standing in your nobility as the dawn breaks forth: now rejoice and be glad, and delight to set us frail ones free from evil habits, and stretch forth your hand and lift us up. Amen.

Going Forth: O God our dance, in whom we live and move and have our being: so direct our strength and inspire our weakness that we may enter with power into the movement of your whole creation, through our partner Jesus Christ. Amen.