Cantica Gaudia

Season of Epiphany: Wednesday Compline

Confession: You share your love with every people;
We draw limits of race and creed.
Lord have mercy.

You immerse yourself in love of life;
We hold back in fear and shame.
Lord have mercy.

You change the water into wine;
We refuse to let our hearts be moved.
Lord have mercy.

Canticle: I will take you from among all nations,
And gather you from all lands to bring you home.
I will sprinkle clean water upon you,
And purify you from false gods and uncleanness.
A new heart I will give you
And a new spirit put within you.
I will take the stone heart from your chest
And give you a heart of flesh.
I will help you walk in my laws
And cherish my commandments and do them.
You shall be my people,
And I will be your God.

Reading: Now I become myself. It's taken
Time, many years and places;
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people's faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
"Hurry, you will be dead before--"
(What? Before you reach the morning?
Or the end of the poem is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!
The black shadow on the paper
Is my hand; the shadow of a word
As thought shapes the shaper
Falls heavy on the page, is heard.
All fuses now, falls into place
From wish to action, word to silence,
My work, my love, my time, my face
Gathered into one intense
Gesture of growing like a plant.
As slowly as the ripening fruit
Fertile, detached, and always spent,
Falls but does not exhaust the root,
So all the poem is, can give,
Grows in me to become the song,
Made so and rooted by love.
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move.
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!

The Lord’s Prayer: Abba our God,
Whom the heavens disclose,
May your name be held holy,
Your authority come.
May your longing be fulfilled
As in heaven, so on earth.
Give us today the bread of tomorrow,
And cancel our debts
As we have already forgiven our debtors.
Do not draw us in
To sinful enticement,
But set us free
From the grip of evil;
For authority and power and glory
Are yours alone, for ever.  Amen.

Prayer: O Christ, son of the living God, may your holy angels guard our sleep, may they watch over us as we rest, and hover around our beds.  Let them reveal to us in our dreams, visions of your truth.  Let no fears or worries delay our willing, prompt repose.  May the virtue of our daily work hallow our nightly prayers.  May our sleep be deep and soft so our work will be fresh and hard.   We ask this in the name of your son Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Going forth: God’s blessing be with us, Christ’s peace be with us, the Spirit’s outpouring be with us, now and always.