Cantica Gaudia

Ordinary Time, Late Summer: Thursday Compline

Confession: O Majesty, behold in pity what we are. Turn aside from your mountains and your stars and have mercy upon us. For we dwell in sin. We are proud in the imagination of our hearts. We make wars. We send the hungry empty away. We are lazy before your truth, and casual and crude in the holy places. We have sought our own safety, denied justice, overlooked falsehood, applauded greed. We have sown the wind and reaped the whirlwind. Come to us, good Lord. Defend us from ourselves, and by your enormous forgiveness, restore in us a right mind, a faithful heart, and a rejoicing soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Canticle:  God is exalted in power; who can be a teacher like God?
Surely God is great, unsearchable is the number of God’s years.
God draws up the drops of water, distills the mist in rain,
Which the skies pour down and drop upon the earth abundantly.
God scatters the lightning and covers the roots of the sea.
God cares for all people, giving food in abundance.
God speaks wondrously in creation
And does great things that we cannot comprehend.
How great is God
Beyond our understanding!

Reading: Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the belly I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child.

But the Lord said to me, Say not, I am a child, for you shall go to all that I shall send you, and whatever I command you shall speak. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you, said the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

The Lord’s Prayer

Seed and source,
Far in the distance and in our souls,
You are holy and make us whole.
May we perceive your divine will
That loved us into being
Help us to join your creative force
And let it prosper here.
Give us what we need to survive,
And release us from our transgressions
As we release others from theirs.
Keep us away from paths of destruction
And from those who would ruin what you have made,
For you are the matrix of life, love and wisdom,
Now and forever.  Amen.

Prayer: Jesus, you are the way through the wilderness: show us your truth in which we journey, and by the grace of the Holy Spirit be in us the life that draws us to God. Amen.

Going Forth: O God, strengthen your servants with your heavenly grace, that we may continue yours for ever, and daily increase in your Holy Spirit more and more, until we come to your everlasting kingdom.