Cantica Gaudia

Ordinary Time, Fall: Saturday Noonday Prayer

Opening: God is spirit, and those who worship God must worship in spirit and in truth.

Psalm: Exalt yourself above the heavens, O God,
And your glory over all the earth.

My heart is firmly fixed, O God, my heart is fixed;
I will sing and make melody.

Wake up, my spirit; awake, lute and harp;
I myself will waken the dawn.

I will confess you among the peoples, O Lord,
I will sing praise to you among the nations.

For your loving-kindness is greater than the heavens,
And your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Exalt yourself above the heavens, O God,
And your glory over all the earth.

Reading:  Why should we live in such a hurry and waste of life?  Are we determined to be starved before we are hungry?

We wish to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.  We wish to learn what life has to teach, and not, when we come to die, discover that we have not lived.

We do not wish to live what is not life, living is so dear, nor do we wish to practice resignation, unless it is quite necessary.

We wish to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.  We want to cut a broad swath, to drive life into a corner and reduce it to its lowest terms.

If it proves to be mean, then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it and publish its meanness to the world; or if it is sublime, to know it by experience and to be able to give a true account of it.

The Lord’s Prayer

Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
Sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
Now and for ever.  Amen.

Prayer: Master of journeys,
     Bless those who seek and those who find.

Your Word brought all into being;
Come to us in silence.
Lord of the dance,
Come to us in stillness.

Fountain of living water, and great empty desert,
Come to us in our thirst.
Source of abundance,
Fill the hungry and empty the satiated.

Lord of might, Source of strength,
Show us your wounds,
That our wounds may become our power.

You – bodiless, without form,
Come, look into our eyes
And hold us in the palm of your hand.

Going Forth:  Let us go forth to love and serve the Lord, alleluia.