Cantica Gaudia

Ordinary Time, Late Summer: Monday Evening Prayer

Opening: Wisdom has built her house; she has mingled her wine and furnished her table.

Canticle: O Gracious Light
pure brightness of the everlasting Father in heaven.
O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!
Now as we come to the setting of the sun,
and our eyes behold the vesper light,
we sing praises, O God:
Father Son and Holy Spirit.
You are worthy at all times
to be praised by happy voices,
O Son of God, O Giver of life,
and to be glorified through all the worlds.

Psalm:I will lift you up
As you have lifted me
Up from my oppressors
That they might not rejoice at my lowliness

In my crying out to you
I was healed

You raised up my soul from the depths
Repaired my wings that I should not go down
To the pit of despair

All who live in gratefulness
Sing thanks to remember your holiness
For though your anger flashes out suddenly
Your hands are gentle, they hold all of life

Glory to God, our Creator, to God’s most Holy Word, and to the Spirit, indwelling; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.

Reading: God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

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: We offer thanks this evening, Lord, for your peace within our struggles and your fire within our passions. 

We bless you for the constancy of your presence, for your voice within our conscience, for our sense of you amid the terrors and trials of our lives. 

We pray, Lord, for the day when our prayers sing only of gratitude ~ and ask for nothing ~ and for the day when all of us see our face and yours in the face of all Creation.

May your grace of God be with us all this night and evermore.

Collect: O God unknown, in our mother's womb you formed us for your glory. Give us a heart to long for you, grace to discern you, and courage to proclaim you; through the one whom you loved before the foundation of the world, our saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Going Forth:  May God be a bright flame before us, a guiding star above us, a smooth path below us, a kindly shepherd behind us, today, tomorrow and for ever. Amen.