Cantica Gaudia

Ordinary Time, Fall: Saturday Evening Prayer

Opening: Light and peace, in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Canticle: As the wings of the dove over their nestlings,
And the mouths of the nestlings toward their mothers’ mouth,
So also are the wings of the Spirit over my heart.
My heart is happy and leaps for joy,
Like the infant who leaps for joy in mother’s womb.
I believe.  I am peaceful.  My faith is in you whom I trust.
You bless me greatly.  My mind is with you.

Psalm: The city of your love
Sings through me
Before you, my Lord

You hold my writing hand
That makes my living
Creative act

Won’t you come to me?
I sit here in my house
With an open heart

No willful image
Blocks the door,
I just won’t see

The theatrics of personality
Crowding the openness you allow

This art that hurts
Those with ears for only jewelry
They go far away.

Glory to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and shall be always.

Reading: Praying is no easy matter. It demands a relationship in which you allow someone other than yourself to enter into the very center of your person, to see there what you would rather leave in darkness, and to touch there what you would rather leave untouched.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be your Name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
And the power and the glory,
For ever and ever.  Amen.

Prayer: Fire of the Spirit, life of the lives of creatures,
Spiral of sanctity, bond of all natures,
Glow of charity, lights of clarity, taste
Of sweetness to sinners, be with us and hear us…

Composer of all things, light of all the risen,
Key of salvation, release from the dark prison,
Hope of all unions, scope of chastities, joy
In the glory, strong honor, be with us and hear us.

Collect: Risen Christ, whom we have seen with our eyes and touched with our hands; the word of life in whom our joy is complete: send us out to declare your truth, your unshakable faith in the world you love. Amen.

Going Forth: May the Love which overcomes all differences,
which heals all wounds, which puts to flight all fears,
which reconciles all who are separated, be in us and among us now and always