Evening

The Minister shall read aloud one or more of these Sentences of the Scriptures that follow, or at special seasons the appropriate Sentences provided in Morning Prayer.

Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Isaiah 55. 6, 7.

The Minister, turning to the people, shall say the Exhortation in the form following. Occasionally the second paragraph may be omitted, or in place of the Exhortation the Minister may say, Let us humbly confess our sins to Almighty God.

Dearly beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth us in sundry places to acknowledge and confess our manifold sins and wickedness; and that we should not dissemble nor cloke them before the face of Almighty God our heavenly Father; but confess them with an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart; to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same, by his infinite goodness and mercy. And although we ought at all times humbly to acknowledge our sins before God; yet ought we most chiefly so to do, when we assemble and meet together to render thanks for the great benefits that we have received at his hands, to set forth his most worthy praise, to hear his most holy Word, and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary, as well for the body as the soul. Wherefore I pray and beseech you, as many as are here present, to accompany me with a pure heart and humble voice unto the throne of the heavenly grace.

A general Confession to be said of the whole Congregation with the Minister, all kneeling.

ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father, We have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, We have offended against thy holy laws, We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults. Restore thou them that are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.

The Absolution, or Remission of sins, to be pronounced by the Priest alone, standing: the people still kneeling.

ALMIGHTY God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness, and live, hath given power and commandment to his Ministers to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the Absolution and Remission of their sins. He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel. Wherefore we beseech him to grant us true repentance and his Holy Spirit, that those things may please him which we do at this present, and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy; so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Here the Lord’s Prayer may be said; the people repeating it with the Minister.

OUR Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy 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 them that trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.

O LORD, open thou our lips;

And our mouth shall show forth thy praise.

O God, make speed to save us;

O Lord, make haste to help us.

Here, all standing up, the Minister shall say:

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Praise ye the Lord;

The Lord’s Name be praised.

Then shall follow THE PSALMS.

48, 49

¹GREAT is the Lord, and highly to be praised : in the city of our God, even upon his holy hill.

²The hill of Sion is a fair place, and the joy of the whole earth : upon the north-side lieth the city of the great King; God is well known in her palaces as a sure refuge.

³For lo, the kings of the earth : are gathered, and gone by together.

⁴They marvelled to see such things : they were astonished, and suddenly cast down.

⁵Fear came there upon them, and sorrow : as upon a woman in her travail.

⁶Thou shalt break the ships of the sea : through the east-wind.

⁷Like as we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God : God upholdeth the same for ever.

⁸We wait for thy loving-kindness, O God : in the midst of thy temple.

⁹O God, according to thy Name, so is thy praise unto the world's end : thy right hand is full of righteousness.

¹⁰Let the mount Sion rejoice, and the daughters of Judah be glad : because of thy judgements.

¹¹Walk about Sion, and go round about her : and tell the towers thereof.

¹²Mark well her bulwarks, set up her houses : that ye may tell them that come after.

¹³For this God is our God for ever and ever : he shall be our guide unto death.

¹O HEAR ye this, all ye people : ponder it with your ears, all ye that dwell in the world;

²High and low, rich and poor : one with another.

³My mouth shall speak of wisdom : and my heart shall muse of understanding.

⁴I will incline mine ear to the parable : and shew my dark speech upon the harp.

⁵Wherefore should I fear in the days of wickedness : and when the wickedness of my heels compasseth me round about?

⁶There be some that put their trust in their goods : and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches.

⁷But no man may deliver his brother : nor make agreement unto God for him;

⁸For it cost more to redeem their souls : so that he must let that alone for ever;

⁹Yea, though he live long : and see not the grave.

¹⁰For he seeth that wise men also die, and perish together : as well as the ignorant and foolish, and leave their riches for other.

¹¹And yet they think that their houses shall continue for ever : and that their dwelling-places shall endure from one generation to another; and call the lands after their own names.

¹²Nevertheless, man will not abide in honour : seeing he may be compared unto the beasts that perish; this is the way of them.

¹³This is their foolishness : and their posterity praise their saying.

¹⁴They lie in the hell like sheep, death gnaweth upon them, and the righteous shall have domination over them in the morning : their beauty shall consume in the sepulchre out of their dwelling.

¹⁵But God hath delivered my soul from the place of hell : for he shall receive me.

¹⁶Be not thou afraid, though one be made rich : or if the glory of his house be increased;

¹⁷For he shall carry nothing away with him when he dieth : neither shall his pomp follow him.

¹⁸For while he lived, he counted himself an happy man : and so long as thou doest well unto thyself, men will speak good of thee.

¹⁹He shall follow the generation of his fathers : and shall never see light.

²⁰Man being in honour hath no understanding : but is compared unto the beasts that perish.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Then THE FIRST LESSON as appointed.

Haggai 1:1-2:9

¹In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest:

²“Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.”

³Then the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet,

⁴“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?

⁵Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways.

⁶You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

⁷“Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways.

⁸Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD.

⁹You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.

¹⁰Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.

¹¹And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”

¹²Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD.

¹³Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD's message, “I am with you, declares the LORD.”

¹⁴And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,

¹⁵on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

¹In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet:

²“Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say,

³‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?

⁴Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the LORD. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts,

⁵according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.

⁶For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.

⁷And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts.

⁸The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the LORD of hosts.

⁹The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.’”

And after that shall be sung or said Magnificat (or the Song of the Blessed Virgin Mary).

O SING unto the LORD a new song, / for he hath done marvellous things. With his own right hand, and with his holy arm, / hath he gotten himself the victory. The LORD declared his salvation: / his righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered his mercy and truth toward the house of Israel; / and all the ends of the world have seen the salvation of our God. Show yourselves joyful unto the LORD, all ye lands: / sing, rejoice, and give thanks. Praise the LORD upon the harp: / sing to the harp with a psalm of thanksgiving. With trumpets also and shawms: / O show yourselves joyful before the LORD the King. Let the sea make a noise, and all that therein is: / the round world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands, and let the hills be joyful together before the LORD: / for he cometh to judge the earth. With righteousness shall he judge the world, / and the peoples with equity. GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, / and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, / world without end. Amen.

Then THE SECOND LESSON as appointed.

Hebrews 4:1-13

¹Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

²For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

³For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.

⁴For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.”

⁵And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.”

⁶Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,

⁷again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

⁸For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.

⁹So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,

¹⁰for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

¹¹Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

¹²For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

¹³And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

And after that shall be sung or said Nunc Dimittis (or the Song of Simeon).

LORD, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, / according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, / which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, / and to be the glory of thy people Israel. GLORY be to the Father, and to the Son, / and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, / world without end. Amen.

Then shall be said or sung the Confession of the Faith, called the Apostles’ Creed.

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of sins; The Resurrection of the body, And the Life everlasting. Amen.

And after the Creed these prayers following, all devoutly kneeling, the Minister first pronouncing:

The Lord be with you.

And with thy spirit.

Minister. Let us pray.

Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us.

OUR Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy 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 them that trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen.

Then the Priest standing up shall say:

O Lord, show thy mercy upon us;

And grant us thy salvation.

O Lord, save the Queen;

And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.

Endue thy Ministers with righteousness;

And make thy chosen people joyful.

O Lord, save thy people;

And bless thine inheritance.

Give peace in our time, O Lord;

And evermore mightily defend us.

O God, make clean our hearts within us;

And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

Then shall follow THE COLLECT OF THE DAY, together with any other Collects appointed to be said, and these two prayers in order.

Collect of the Day

Friday after the 18th Sunday after Trinity

LORD, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Second Collect, for Peace.

O GOD, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed: Give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give; that our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments, and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.

The Third Collect, for Aid against all Perils.

LIGHTEN our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Here may be said the prayers found at this point in Morning Prayer or selections from the Prayers and Thanksgivings or such other prayers as are contained in this Book or set forth by lawful authority, always ending with the Prayer of St Chrysostom and the Grace.

A Prayer for the Queen’s Majesty

O LORD our heavenly Father, high and mighty, King of kings, Lord of lords, the only Ruler of princes, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers upon earth: Most heartily we beseech thee with thy favour to behold our most gracious Sovereign Lady, Queen ELIZABETH; and so replenish her with the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that she may alway incline to thy will, and walk in thy way: Endue her plenteously with heavenly gifts; grant her in health and wealth long to live; strengthen her that she may vanquish and overcome all her enemies, and finally after this life she may attain everlasting joy and felicity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift: Send down upon our Bishops and Clergy, and all Congregations committed to their charge, the healthful Spirit of thy grace; and that they may truly please thee, pour upon them the continual dew of thy blessing. Grant this, O Lord, for the honour of our Advocate and Mediator, Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Prayer of Saint Chrysostom.

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee; and dost promise, that when two or three are gathered together in thy Name thou wilt grant their requests; Fulfil now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of thy servants, as may be most expedient for them; granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come life everlasting. Amen.

THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen.