Cantica Gaudia

Season of Lent: Sunday Evening Prayer

Opening: Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears.

Canticle: Who would have believed what we have heard,
And to whom has the power of the Lord been revealed?
He grew up before the Lord like a tender plant,
Like a root out of arid ground.
He had no beauty, no majesty to draw our eyes
No grace to make us delight in him.
He was despised and rejected
A man of sorrows and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
He was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows,
Yet we considered him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions
He was bruised for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought us peace was laid upon him,
And by his wounds we are healed.

Psalm: You are my light and my help
Whom should I fear?
You are the fortress of my life
Whom should I dread?
When the narrow ones gather their strength to devour me
It is they who stumble and fall
Even if a royal army were camped outside my gate
My heart would not fear
And when they struck out with terrible weapons against me
Even then I’d trust.

One thing I ask for, one thing I hope—
To live in your house
All the days of my life
To behold your loveliness
Every morning in the light of your temple dawn

Till on a doomful day
You secure me in your precincts
Conceal me within the folds of your covering tent
Place me high and safe upon a rock
My head lifted above the engulfing waves

With the joy of my heart
I will sacrifice
Within that billowing shelter
Singing and playing my abandonment to you

Hear my voice when I raise it up
Be gracious – answer me –
Speaking with your voice my heart sang,
Seek my presence

I will

Do not hide your glowing face from me
Do not reject me in anger because of my shortcomings
You have always been for me
Don’t cast me off now, don’t walk away
My helper, my friend

My mother and father forsake me
But you take me up
Show me the way!
Guide my steps on the clear path
Against the ever-present cliffs and thickets
Protect me from the noise of desire and hatefulness
From false words and shouted accusations

If I did not have faith in your rightness
That it would bloom in this living land –
It is unthinkable

I wait only for you
With strength and courage

I wait only for you

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: Lord, not you,
it is I who am absent.
At first
belief was a joy I kept in secret,
stealing alone
into sacred places:
a quick glance, and away – and back,
circling.
I have long since uttered your name
but now
I elude your presence.
I stop
to think about you, and my mind
at once
like a minnow darts away,
darts
into the shadows, into gleams that fret
unceasing over
the river’s purling and passing.
Not for one second
will my self hold still, but wanders
anywhere,
everywhere it can turn.  Not you,
it is I am absent.
You are the stream, the fish, the light,
the pulsing shadow,
the unchanging presence, in whom all
moves and changes.
How can I focus my flickering, perceive
at the fountain’s heart
the sapphire I know is there?

The Lord’s Prayer: Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be your Name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
And the power and the glory,
For ever and ever.  Amen.

Prayer: Through dark nights and ages
Our ancestors lit their night fires.
They gathered around the circle
Telling their tales of the day.
O God, source of all holy fires,
Bless the story of my day.
Enlighten and warm my heart.
O God, send out your Spirit—
A tongue of fire above my head.
Let not the wick be quashed
Nor the bruised reed trampled.

Collect: I make the cross of Christ upon my breast, over the tablet of my hard heart, and I beseech the Living God of the universe -- may the Light of Lights come to my dark heart from Thy place; may the Spirit's wisdom come to my heart's tablet from my Savior. Amen.

Blessing:  Lord, you see us as we are. Breathe into our minds and hearts the passion of your love.