Morning

The Minister reads one or more of these sentences of Scripture:

I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

Luke 15.18-19

Beloved in Christ, we are here in the presence of the living God and of the whole company of heaven, to offer to him, through our Lord Jesus Christ, our worship and praise and thanksgiving; that we may know more truly the greatness of his love, and that his grace may bear fruit in our lives. We have come to hear and receive God’s holy Word, to seek the strengthening power of the Holy Spirit, and to pray for ourselves and all mankind that we may be given those things which are necessary for our true well-being. But first let us confess our sins, and seek our Father’s pardon and peace:

KNEEL

We confess to God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that we have sinned in thought, word, and deed. 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. Wherefore we pray God to have mercy upon us. Almighty God have mercy upon us, forgive us all our sins and deliver us from evil, confirm and strengthen us in all goodness, and bring us to life everlasting. Amen.

The Minister (if a Priest) says:

Almighty God, who forgives all who truly repent, have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and keep you in eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE OFFICE — STAND

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.

STAND

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Spirit;

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.

O come let us sing unto the Lord: let us heartily rejoice in the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving: and sing loudly unto him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God: and a great King above all gods. In his hand are all the deep places of the earth: and the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his and he made it: and his hands prepared the dry land. O come let us worship and bow down: and kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God, and we are his people and the sheep of his pasture: today, if ye will hear his voice, ye shall know his power. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Spirit; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Psalm 144

¹Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;

²he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.

³O LORD, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?

⁴Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.

⁵Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down! Touch the mountains so that they smoke!

⁶Flash forth the lightning and scatter them; send out your arrows and rout them!

⁷Stretch out your hand from on high; rescue me and deliver me from the many waters, from the hand of foreigners,

⁸whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

⁹I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you,

¹⁰who gives victory to kings, who rescues David his servant from the cruel sword.

¹¹Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners, whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

¹²May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace;

¹³may our granaries be full, providing all kinds of produce; may our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields;

¹⁴may our cattle be heavy with young, suffering no mishap or failure in bearing; may there be no cry of distress in our streets!

¹⁵Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall! Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Spirit;

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

The first lesson is read from the Old Testament or the Apocrypha.

2 Chronicles 15

The reader names the book, the chapter, and the verse. After each lesson the reader says: Here ends the first (or second) lesson.

¹The Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded,

²and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The LORD is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.

³For a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without law,

⁴but when in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them.

⁵In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands.

⁶They were broken in pieces. Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every sort of distress.

⁷But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.”

⁸As soon as Asa heard these words, the prophecy of Azariah the son of Oded, he took courage and put away the detestable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities that he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim, and he repaired the altar of the LORD that was in front of the vestibule of the house of the LORD.

⁹And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing with them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.

¹⁰They were gathered at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.

¹¹They sacrificed to the LORD on that day from the spoil that they had brought 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep.

¹²And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul,

¹³but that whoever would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman.

¹⁴They swore an oath to the LORD with a loud voice and with shouting and with trumpets and with horns.

¹⁵And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought him with their whole desire, and he was found by them, and the LORD gave them rest all around.

¹⁶Even Maacah, his mother, King Asa removed from being queen mother because she had made a detestable image for Asherah. Asa cut down her image, crushed it, and burned it at the brook Kidron.

¹⁷But the high places were not taken out of Israel. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was wholly true all his days.

¹⁸And he brought into the house of God the sacred gifts of his father and his own sacred gifts, silver, and gold, and vessels.

¹⁹And there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel: for he hath visited, and redeemed his people; And hath raised up a mighty salvation for us: in the house of his servant David; As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets: which have been since the world began; That we should be saved from our enemies: and from the hands of all that hate us; To perform the mercy promised to our forefathers: and to remember his holy covenant; To perform the oath which he swore to our forefather Abraham; That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies: might serve him without fear; In holiness and righteousness before him: all the days of our life; And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; To give knowledge of salvation unto his people: for the remission of their sins; Through the tender mercy of our God: whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us; To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death: and to guide our feet into the way of peace. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Spirit; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

The second lesson is read from the New Testament.

Ephesians 2:11-end

The reader names the book, the chapter, and the verse. After each lesson the reader says: Here ends the first (or second) lesson.

¹¹Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands —

¹²remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

¹⁴For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

¹⁵by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,

¹⁶and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

¹⁷And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

¹⁸For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,

²¹in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

²²In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

We praise thee, O God: we acknowledge thee to be the Lord. All the earth doth worship thee: the Father everlasting. To thee all angels cry aloud: the heavens and all the powers therein. To thee cherubim and seraphim continually do cry, Holy, Holy, Holy: Lord God of hosts; Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory. The glorious company of the apostles praise thee: the goodly fellowship of the prophets praise thee. The noble army of martyrs praise thee: the holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee, the Father of an infinite majesty; thine honourable, true and only Son; also the Holy Ghost the Comforter. Thou art the King of glory, O Christ: thou art the everlasting Son of the Father. When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man: thou didst not abhor the Virgin’s womb. When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death: thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Thou sittest at the right hand of God: in the glory of the Father. We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge. We therefore pray thee help thy servants: whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood. Make them to be numbered with thy saints: in glory everlasting.

THE APOSTLES’ CREED — STAND

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 Spirit, 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 is seated at 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 Spirit; the Holy Catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

KNEEL. Let us pray.

The Lord be with you;

And with your spirit.

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 those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. Amen.

The Versicles and Responses

O Lord, show thy mercy upon us;

And grant us thy salvation.

Endue thy ministers with righteousness;

And make thy chosen people joyful.

O Lord, save thy people;

And bless thine inheritance.

O Lord, save the Queen;

And give her counsellors wisdom.

Give peace in our time, O Lord;

And evermore mightily defend us.

Make clean our hearts, O God;

And renew a right spirit within us.

Collect of the Day

Wednesday after the 18th Sunday after Trinity

God, who declares thy almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity: mercifully grant us such a measure of thy grace, that we, running the way of thy commandments, may obtain thy promises, and be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Second Collect, for Peace

Almighty God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom stands our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom: defend us thy servants in all dangers and adversities, that, surely trusting in thy defence, we may serve thee without fear; through the power of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Third Collect, for Grace

Heavenly Father, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day: defend us with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance, to do always what is righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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