Cantica Gaudia

Season of Lent: Wednesday Morning Prayer

Opening:  Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil.

Canticle: Come, let us return to our God,
Who has torn us and will heal us.
God has struck us and will bind up our wounds,
After two days revive us,
On the third day restore us,
That in God’s presence we may live.
Let us humble ourselves, let us strive to know the Lord,
Whose justice dawns like morning light,
Its dawning as sure as the sunrise.
God’s justice will come to us like a shower,
Like spring rains that water the earth.

Psalm: Be gracious with me in your loving-kindness
In your tenderness blot out my confusion
Wash me, let my impurity run off
Cleanse me, squeeze the poison out
For of my twistedness I’m painfully aware
My weakness is before my eyes all day long

Against you, weaver of the hidden pattern of things
Has the shape of my actions inclined
Necessarily—
For I am human
And my pain must rend the cloth
Unraveling right and wrong
Tearing the fabric of my own heart
That in its woundedness it has no choice but to seek for you

From the first I was this way
Mothered in conception and division—
Your eye looks through the fabric to the nothing beyond—
Cause me there, in my soul’s exile, to find brightness
Freshen me with hyssop
Wash my heart and my body will be whiter than snow
Let me hear with the inward ear the gladness and the joy
Of my sensual life
So that the bones you’ve crushed in bringing me to be
Can click and sing, repaired
Let the light of your eye in mine
Clarify my tangles and snarls
So they do not pull nor strangle
And my heart becomes clear
And my spirit new

Don’t push me away
Don’t remove your natural love
Remind me of the joy I find in immersion in you
Support me – free me –
And I will remember you to all who’ve fallen away
And they’ll rise up, face to face with you again
Deliver me from division within myself
That I can find my tongue to sing your allness—
Open my lips and my mouth will praise you
For this is what you desire, not sacrifice

If you wanted burnt offerings I’d give them
But the sacrifice you desire is a broken heart
A humbled heart, quiet and receptive
You will always receive
Take it and make Zion strong
Take it and pile high the walls of Jerusalem
And then the rites and rituals will make sense
Then the bullocks and the incense can be offered on the altars

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: Holy Spirit, giving life to all life, moving all creatures, root of all things, washing them clean, wiping out their mistakes, healing their wounds: you are our true life, luminous, wonderful, awakening the heart from its ancient sleep.

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: God, my maker, hold me this day,
with the same hand that shapes the mountains,
with the same hand that cradles the deep.
Keep my heart soft and supple,
make my faith strong and firm.
Renew me, re-form me, re-create me
into the image of Jesus Christ the Lord.  Amen.

 Collect: Christ our true and only Light: receive our morning prayers, and illumine the secrets of our hearts with your healing goodness, that no evil desires may possess us who are made new in the light of your heavenly grace. Amen.

Blessing: Let us go into the world rejoicing. It is Christ who goes before us.