Cantica Gaudia

Season of Lent: Friday Morning Prayer

Opening:  God of mercy and compassion,
Your Word calls us home to faith and love.
accept all we offer you this day;
in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord.

Canticle: Surely it is God who saves me;
I will trust in God and not be afraid.
For the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense,
And will be my Savior.
Therefore you shall draw water with rejoicing from the springs of salvation
And on that day you shall say,
Give thanks to the Lord and call upon God’s name;
Make know the Lord’s deeds among the peoples;
See that they remember that the holy Name is exalted.
Sing the praises of the Lord, for God has done great things,
And this is known in all the world.
Cry aloud, inhabitants of Zion, ring out your joy,
For the great one in the midst of you is the Holy One of Israel.

Psalm: My soul is for your blessing
All that is within me
A blessing for your nameless holiness
My soul is for your blessing
And remembers your gifts

Who forgives everything
Who heals all diseases
Who redeems life from death
Who makes a sovereign crown
Of kindness and mercy
Who awakens the spirit
So that time’s refreshed
And grows back like an eagle’s feather
Who brings justice to the unfairly treated
Who makes known your ways to Moses our teacher
And acts in the lives of the strugglers
Who is kind, who is gracious
Steadfast and faithful
Who doesn’t contend forever
But lets anger slip away
Whose gifts are gracious and fortuitous
Whose generosity is blind to our shortcomings –

As high as heaven is above the earth
So far, so wide is your kindness to us who seek to know you
As far as east is from west
So far, so distant have you removed us from our limitations

As a parent loves a child
Freely and unsurpassingly
So have you loved us
For you know who we are
You remember we are dust
Our days like grass
We bloom like the flowers of the field
When only a wind passes over them
They are gone
And the field forgets them

But your kindness
Stretches from forever to forever
Your rightness
Flows down through the generations
To those who keep faith with you
To those who walk your ways

You establish your throne in the center of things
Your kingdom embraces all
Blessings to you from the mighty angels
Who carry out the messages of your words
Blessings to you from the surrounding hosts
From the servants who build up your works
Blessings to you from all that you have made and are
In all the places throughout all the times –

My soul is for your blessing

Glory to God, who made us, who bears our pain, and who loves us. 
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.  Amen.

Reading: It was like a church to me.
I entered it on soft foot,
Breath held like a cap in the hand.
It was quiet.
What God was there made himself felt,
Not listened to, in clean colours
That brought a moistening of the eye,
In movement of the wind over grass.
There were no prayers said. But stillness
Of the heart’s passions — that was praise
Enough; and the mind’s cession
Of its kingdom. I walked on,
Simple and poor, while the air crumbled
And broke on me generously as bread.

The Lord’s Prayer: Holy One,
We honor your name.
Let the world know your justice
Here as everywhere.
Give us the food we need
For both the body and the soul.
Forgive us the wrongs we do
As we forgive the wrongs of others.
Keep us safe from the evil
At large or of our own making.
We trust you for you made us and
We are yours, now and always.  Amen.

Prayer:  Creator Spirit, wellspring of our lives, as the refreshing rain falls on the just and unjust alike, refresh us with your mercy, who knows our own injustice.

As the stream flows steadily on, defying all the odds of stone and water, flow over every boundary and border that separates us from each other.

As the waters of our baptism washed us and welcomed us, renew us now in newness of life and unity of love.

As we were once held in the waters of our mother's womb, hold us in the power and peace of your abiding presence. Amen.

Collect: Gracious Father, your Son is the source of living water: grant that the gift of his Spirit may be to us a spring of water welling up to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Blessing: The blessing of Martha's welcome, the blessing of Mary's listening; the blessing of action, the blessing of reflection, the blessing of a God who is in each of these, and in each one of us, be with us all. Amen.