Cantica Gaudia

Ordinary Time, Fall: Friday Morning Prayer

Opening: We lift our hands in praise, to say these hands are yours.

Canticle: Come Holy Spirit
Send from highest heaven
Radiance of your light.

Come, father of the poor
Come, giver of all gifts
Come, light of every heart.

Of comforters the best
Dear guest of every soul
Refreshment ever sweet

In our labour rest
Coolness in our heat
Comfort in our grief.

O most blessed light
Fill the inmost hearts
Of your faithful ones.

Without your holy presence
All is dark
Nothing free from sin.

What is soiled cleanse
What is dry refresh
What is wounded heal.

What is rigid bend
What is frozen warm
Guide what goes astray

Give your faithful ones
Who in you confide
Sevenfold hallowing.

Give goodness its reward
Give journey safe through death
Give joy that has no end.

Psalm: Show us your mercy, o Lord,
And grant us your salvation.

I will listen to what the Lord God is saying,
For he is speaking peace to his faithful people
And to those who turn their hearts to him.

Truly, her salvation is very near to those who fear her,
That her glory may dwell in our land.

Mercy and truth have met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Truth shall spring up from the earth,
And righteousness shall look down from heaven.

The Lord will indeed grant prosperity,
And our land will yield its increase.

Righteousness shall go before him,
And peace shall be a pathway for her feet.

Glory to God, Source of all being, Eternal Word, and Holy Spirit;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.  Amen.

Reading: As with Jacob, most of my visions of the divine have happened while I was busy doing something else. I did nothing to make them happen. I can dismiss them, talk myself out of them. Or I can set a little altar, in the world or in my heart. I can stop what I am doing long enough to see where I am, who I am there with, and how awesome the place is. I can flag one more gate to heaven -- one more patch of ordinary earth with ladder marks on it -- where divine traffice is heavy when I notice it and even when I do not. Earth is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere without cracking our shins on altars.

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:  Lord, you have been our dwelling place through all generations.
In you, we come home—
To rest, to wrestle, to love, to be loved.
We dwell in you.

Before the mountains were born, before you delivered the whole world,
From everlasting past to everlasting future, you are God.
In you, we are home—
We dream, we flourish, we fade, we rejoice.
We dwell in you.

Collect: Breathe into me, Holy Spirit, that my mind may turn to what is holy. Move me, Holy Spirit, that I may do what is holy. Strengthen me, Holy Spirit, that I may preserve what is holy. Protect me, Holy Spirit, that I may never lose what is holy.

Going Forth: Thanks be to God, alleluia!