Cantica Gaudia

Ordinary Time, Late Summer: Friday Morning Prayer

Opening: Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord.

Canticle: This is the day that God has made,
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
We will not offer to God
Offerings that cost nothing.
We go in peace to serve the Lord,
To seek truth and pursue it.
In the name of the Trinity of Love,
We take His pilgrim way.

Psalm: How lovely is your dwelling-place
Lord God of power and might.
My soul has a desire and longing to enter the courts of the Lord
My heart and flesh rejoice in the living God.
The sparrow finds herself a house
And the swallow a nest where she may lay her young.
Even so have the singers a home at your altars
They stand always praising you, my king and my God.
O Lord God of hosts
Blessed are those who dwell in your house.
Blessed are those whose strength is in you
Who have set their hearts on pilgrimage
Going through the arid valley, they find a spring from which to drink
The early rain covers it with pools of water.
They go from strength to strength
And appear every one before God in Jerusalem.

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: The time will come
When, with elation,
You will greet yourself arriving
At your own door, in your own mirror,
And each will smile at the other’s welcome,

And say, sit here, Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine.  Give bread.  Give back your heart
To itself, to the stranger who has loved you

All your life, whom you ignored
For another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

The photographs, the desperate notes,
Peel your image from the mirror.
Sit.  Feast on your life.

The Lord’s Prayer

Creator of all,
Alive in all things and greater than all things,
Your naming be held holy.
Your vision of our goodness be made manifest throughout the universe,
And your desires for us brought to fulfillment.
Give us that which is essential for our growth and work.
Offer forgiveness and healing to us as we forgive and heal those around us.
Protect us from unnecessary suffering and wasteful pain.
For all that is beautiful, strong and glorious has its roots in you
and expresses your will and your nature, which we share in, unendingly.  Amen.

Prayer:  O God, you have created us, hands and mind and heart, to find satisfaction in hard and skillful work, and to delight in sharing its harvest. With all who labor, we offer ourselves to be the work of your hands in making a world where no one will be exhausted by toil that is fruitless; but all may enjoy to the full what their own hands have produced. In the name of Christ, amen.

Collect: Blow the trumpet, Lord, call a celebration; let stories be told and tears shed; let prayers be uttered and laughter break forth; let bread be broken and wine shared, until your kingdom comes among us, bringing its many surprises.

Going Forth: Thanks be to God, alleluia!