Evening Prayer

O God, make speed to save us.

This opening prayer may be said

That this evening may be holy, good and peaceful, let us pray with one heart and mind.

Silence is kept.

As our evening prayer rises before you, O God, so may your mercy come down upon us to cleanse our hearts and set us free to sing your praise now and for ever.

The appointed psalmody is said.

Psalm 4, 7

¹Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!

²O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah

³But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.

⁴Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah

⁵Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD.

⁶There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!”

⁷You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.

⁸In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

¹O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,

²lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.

³O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,

⁴if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause,

⁵let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust. Selah

⁶Arise, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.

⁷Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high.

⁸The LORD judges the peoples; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.

⁹Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous — you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God!

¹⁰My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.

¹¹God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.

¹²If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow;

¹³he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.

¹⁴Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.

¹⁵He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made.

¹⁶His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.

¹⁷I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.

Each psalm or group of psalms may end with

Refrain:

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, whose judgements are true and just.

Praise our God, all you his servants, all who fear him, both small and great.

The Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns: let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory.

For the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready.

Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding banquet of the Lamb.

Revelation 19.1b,2a,5b,6b,7,9b

One or more readings appointed for the day are read.

Wisdom 1

¹Love righteousness, ye that be judges of the earth: think of the Lord with a good (heart,) and in simplicity of heart seek him.

²For he will be found of them that tempt him not; and sheweth himself unto such as do not distrust him.

³For froward thoughts separate from God: and his power, when it is tried, reproveth the unwise.

⁴For into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter; nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin.

⁵For the holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and remove from thoughts that are without understanding, and will not abide when unrighteousness cometh in.

⁶For wisdom is a loving spirit; and will not acquit a blasphemer of his words: for God is witness of his reins, and a true beholder of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue.

⁷For the Spirit of the Lord filleth the world: and that which containeth all things hath knowledge of the voice.

⁸Therefore he that speaketh unrighteous things cannot be hid: neither shall vengeance, when it punisheth, pass by him.

⁹For inquisition shall be made into the counsels of the ungodly: and the sound of his words shall come unto the Lord for the manifestation of his wicked deeds.

¹⁰For the ear of jealousy heareth all things: and the noise of murmurings is not hid.

¹¹Therefore beware of murmuring, which is unprofitable; and refrain your tongue from backbiting: for there is no word so secret, that shall go for nought: and the mouth that belieth slayeth the soul.

¹²Seek not death in the error of your life: and pull not upon yourselves destruction with the works of your hands.

¹³For God made not death: neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living.

¹⁴For he created all things, that they might have their being: and the generations of the world were healthful; and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor the kingdom of death upon the earth:

¹⁵(For righteousness is immortal:)

¹⁶But ungodly men with their works and words called it to them: for when they thought to have it their friend, they consumed to nought, and made a covenant with it, because they are worthy to take part with it.

Mark 9.38–end

³⁸John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”

³⁹But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.

⁴⁰For the one who is not against us is for us.

⁴¹For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

⁴²“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

⁴³And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.

⁴⁵And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.

⁴⁷And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell,

⁴⁸‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

⁴⁹For everyone will be salted with fire.

⁵⁰Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

The reading(s) may be followed by a time of silence.

A suitable song or chant, or a responsory in this or another form, may follow

The Lord is my light and my salvation; the Lord is the strength of my life.

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

from Psalm 27 and John 1

Refrain:

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour; he has looked with favour on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed; the Almighty has done great things for me and holy is his name.

He has mercy on those who fear him, from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm and has scattered the proud in their conceit,

Casting down the mighty from their thrones and lifting up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.

He has come to the aid of his servant Israel, to remember his promise of mercy,

The promise made to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children for ever.

Luke 1.46-55

Intercessions are offered

These responses may be used

Lord, in your mercy

(or)

Lord, hear us.

Silence may be kept.

The Collect of the day (here) or the following is said

Collect of the Day

Monday after the 14th Sunday after Trinity

Almighty God, whose only Son has opened for us a new and living way into your presence: give us pure hearts and steadfast wills to worship you in spirit and in truth; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

The Lord’s Prayer is said (here)

As our Saviour taught us, so we pray

Let us bless the Lord.