Cantica Gaudia

Season of Lent: Friday Noonday Prayer

Opening:  Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal -- have mercy on us (repeat three times).

Psalm: Your unsayable Name: it covers all the earth
And your presence extends ever outward
From the furthest conceivable point

Out of the mouths of babes
Who speak only wordless wondering words
You fashion your incomprehensible power
That gathers into silence all opposition
All the pressure to deaden and destroy

When I behold the night sky, the work of your fingers
The bright moon and the many-layered stars which you have established
I think:

A woman is so frail and you remember her
A man so small and you think of him

And yet
In you woman and man become as angels
Crowned with a luminous presence
And you have given them care for the works of your hands
Placed the solid growing earth under their feet

Flocks of birds and herds of deer
Oxen and sheep and goats and cows
Soaring birds and darting fishes
All that swims the paths of the sea

O you whom I am ever addressing
Your unsayable name covers heaven and earth

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:Yes, seekers, do
sit up,
stand tall.

But hear
my bent secret:

All saints slouch.

God’s lovers lean
into the divine embrace
and there
let the years pass.

Struggling for straightness,
your strivings shaken,

learn what true knowers know:

Effort clears the way,
but the steps
are already taken.

The Lord’s Prayer: Ground of all being, Mother of life, Father of the universe,
Your name is sacred, beyond speaking.
May we know your presence.
May your longings be our longings
in heart and in action.
May there be food for the human family today
and for the whole earth community.
Forgive us the falseness of what we have done
as we forgive those who are untrue to us.
Do not forsake us in our time of conflict
but lead us into new beginnings.
For the light of life, the vitality of life, and the glory of life
are yours now and for ever.
Amen.

Prayer:  You call us to service;
to be your eyes and ears,
hands and voice in this your world.
To open our eyes not only
to the beauty and love which you create,
but the injustice,
hate and suffering that mankind generates.
To open our ears not only
to the chattering of this coming week,
but the searching, 
fears and questioning of all whom we shall meet.
To open our hands not only
to those we choose our lives to share, 
but in welcome,
love and fellowship to all who you draw near. 
To open our mouths not only
to speak platitudes and simple words,
but the truths you lay upon our hearts. 
Your Word for this your world.
You call us to service,
to be your eyes and ears,
hands and voice in this your world

Blessing: May God's voice ring true in our ears through all the noise of the world, and may we rise to meet the Lord's song.