Cantica Gaudia
Season of Epiphany: Monday Evening Prayer
Opening: O Lord, encompassed in light as with a cloak, you conquer the darkness of our night, make known your glory.
Canticle: Come be our mother we are your young ones
Come be our bride we are your lover
Come be our dwelling we are your inhabitants
Come be our game we are your players
Come be our punishment we are your sinners
Come be our ocean we are your swimmers
Come be our victory we are your army
Come be our laughter we are your story
Come be our Shekhinah we are your glory
We believe that you live
though you delay we believe you will certainly come....When the transformation happens as it must
When we remember
When she wakes from her long repose in us
When she wipes the nightmare
of history form her eyes
When she returns from exile
When she utters her voice in the streets
In the opening of the gates
How long, you simple ones, will you
Love simplicity, and the scorners delight
In their scorning, and fools hate knowledge
When she enters the modern world
When she crosses the land
Shaking her breasts and hips
With timbrels and with dances
magnified and sanctified
Exalted and honored
Blessed and glorified
When she causes tyranny
To vanish
When she and he meet
When they behold each other face to face
when they become naked and not ashamed
On that day will our God be One
and their name OneShekhinah bless us and keep us
Shekhinah shine your face on us
Shekhinah turn your countenance
To us and give us peacePsalm: I praise the Lord with my whole heart;
With each breath I sing to my God.
Happy are those who trust him
And surrender their lives to his care.
She creates us in her own image
And fills us with her compassion,
Opening the eyes of the blind
And lifting up those who have fallen.
His justice shines from the depths,
Hidden but always present
Praise her for what you can fathom;
For what you can’t fathom, praise her.Glory to God, our Creator, to God’s most Holy Word, and to the Spirit, indwelling; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.
Reading: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn in Zion –
to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, to display his glory.
They shall build up the ancient ruins,
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.The Lord’s Prayer: Creator of all,
Alive in all things and greater than all things,
Your naming be held holy.
Your vision of our goodness be made manifest throughout the universe,
And your desires for us brought to fulfillment.
Give us that which is essential for our growth and work.
Offer forgiveness and healing to us as we forgive and heal those around us.
Protect us from unnecessary suffering and wasteful pain.
For all that is beautiful, strong and glorious has its roots in you
and expresses your will and your nature, which we share in, unendingly. Amen.Prayer: Let us be at peace within ourselves. (Silence)
Let us accept that we are profoundly loved and need never be afraid. (Silence)
Let us be aware of the source of being that is common to us all and to all living creatures. (Silence)
Let us be filled with the presence of the great compassion towards ourselves and towards all living beings. (Silence)
Realising that we are all nourished from the same source of life, may we so live that others be not deprived of air, food, water, shelter, or the chance to live. (Silence)
Let us pray that we ourselves cease to be a cause of suffering to one another. (Silence)
With humility let us pray for the establishment of peace in our hearts and on earth. (Silence)
May God kindle in us the fire of love, to bring us alive and give warmth to the world. Amen.Collect: Lifegiving God, whose wisdom speaks to us in light and breath, in earth and flesh: may we share her delight in all that has life and proclaim your incarnate word, the lover of all creation, through Jesus Christ, in whom all things hold together. Amen.
Going forth: May the Lord direct our hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perserverance.