Cantica Gaudia

Ordinary Time, Fall: Tuesday Compline

Confession: Almighty God, we have been wandering in the wilderness of sin. We have complained in the face of your mercy. We have been selfish and conceited in the face of your sacrifice. We have not done your will. Teach us humility. Teach us gratitude. Infuse your spirit into our beings so that we might be reconciled to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Psalm: Be still:
Offer that
For it is fitting
Trust it
For it is the rightness
Of all that is

People say
Who will bring us
What we need?
Who will beam
Heaven’s light
On us?

But already
My heart has more joy
Than full granaries
And wineries
Could provide

And I will lie down
To sleep
With a deep peace
For in you
I find my completion

Reading:I love the dark hours of my being.
My mind deepens into them.
There I can find, as in old letters,
the days of my life, already lived,
and held like a legend, and understood.

Then the knowing comes: I can open
to another life that’s wide and timeless.

So I am sometimes like a tree
rustling over a gravesite
and making real the dream
of the one its living roots
embrace:

a dream once lost
among sorrows and songs.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done
On earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
And deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
Now and for ever.  Amen.

Prayer: I come before you as one of your many children.
See, I am small and weak;
I need your strength and wisdom.

Grant me to walk in beauty and that my eyes
may ever behold the crimson sunset.
May my hands treat with respect the things
which you have created, may my ears hear your voice!

Make me wise, that I may understand
the things which you have taught my people,
which you have hidden in every leaf and every rock.

I long for strength,
not in order that I may overreach my brother
but to fight my greatest enemy – myself.

Make me ever ready to come to you
with pure hands and candid eyes, so that my spirit,
when life disappears like the setting sun,
may stand unashamed before you.

Going Forth: Thanks be to God. Alleluia, alleluia!