Monday morning April 3
Image: Unsplash
Opening response
Lord, open our lips.
Our mouth will declare your praise.
Let your way may be known on earth,
and your salvation amongst all nations.
Prayer of thanksgiving
Blessed are you, Lord God of our salvation,
to you be praise and glory forever.
As a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief
your only Son was lifted up
that he might draw the whole world to himself.
May we walk this day in the way of the cross
and always be ready to share its weight,
declaring your love for all the world.
Blessed be God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Blessed be God forever.
The night has passed, and the day lies open before us;
let us pray with one heart and mind.
Silence is kept.
As we rejoice in the gift of this new day,
so may the light of your presence, O God,
set our hearts on fire with love for you;
now and forever.
Amen.
Hymn
O Wondrous Power of Faithful Prayer
Charles Wesley
O wondrous power of faithful prayer!
What tongue can tell the almighty grace?
God’s hands or bound or open are,
As Moses or Elijah prays;
Let Moses in the Spirit groan,
And God cries out, “Let me alone!”
“Let me alone, that all my wrath
May rise the wicked to consume;
While justice hears the praying faith,
It cannot seal the sinner’s doom:
My Son is in my servant’s prayer,
And Jesus forces me to spare.”
Father, we ask in Jesus’ name,
In Jesus’ power and spirit pray;
Divert thy vengeful thunder’s aim,
O turn thy threatening wrath away!
Our guilt and punishment remove,
And magnify thy pardoning love.
Father regard thy pleading Son!
Accept his all-availing prayer,
And send a peaceful answer down,
In honor of our Spokesman there,
Whose blood proclaims our sins forgiven,
And speaks thy rebels up to heaven.
Confession of sin
Seek the LORD while he may be found.
Call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways,
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them return to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them,
to our God, for he will freely pardon.
cf Isaiah 55
A time of silence and self-examination may be kept.
Lord God,
we have sinned against you;
we have committed evil in your sight.
We are sorry and repent.
Have mercy on us according to your faithful love.
Wash us completely clean of our guilt; purify us from our sin.
Put a new, faithful spirit deep inside us,
and return the joy of your salvation to us
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
cf Psalm 51
May the Father of all mercies
cleanse us from our sins,
and restore us in his image
to the praise and glory of his name,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Blessed be the LORD,
because he has heard the voice of our petitions.
Therefore our hearts greatly rejoice.
With our song we will thank him.
cf Psalm 28:7,9
Psalm 41
Refrain:
LORD, have mercy on me, and raise me up.
Blessed is he who considers the poor.
The LORD will deliver him in the day of evil.
The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive.
He shall be blessed on the earth,
and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies.
The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed,
and restore him from his bed of illness.
I said, “LORD, have mercy on me!
Heal me, for I have sinned against you.”
My enemies speak evil against me:
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood.
His heart gathers iniquity to itself.
When he goes abroad, he tells it.
All who hate me whisper together against me.
They imagine the worst for me.
“An evil disease”, they say, “has afflicted him.
Now that he lies he shall rise up no more.”
Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted,
who ate bread with me,
has lifted up his heel against me.
But you, LORD, have mercy on me, and raise me up,
that I may repay them.
By this I know that you delight in me,
because my enemy doesn’t triumph over me.
As for me, you uphold me in my integrity,
and set me in your presence forever.
Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
from everlasting and to everlasting!
Amen and amen.
Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen.
Refrain:
LORD, have mercy on me, and raise me up.
Psalm prayer
God our deliverer,
raise up the poor and comfort the betrayed,
through the one who for our sakes became poor
and whose betrayal brought our salvation,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Old Testament reading
Lamentations 1:1-12
How the city sits solitary,
that was full of people!
She has become as a widow,
who was great amongst the nations!
She who was a princess amongst the provinces
has become a slave!
She weeps bitterly in the night.
Her tears are on her cheeks.
Amongst all her lovers
she has no one to comfort her.
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her.
They have become her enemies.
Judah has gone into captivity because of affliction
and because of great servitude.
She dwells amongst the nations.
She finds no rest.
All her persecutors overtook her in her distress.
The roads to Zion mourn,
because no one comes to the solemn assembly.
All her gates are desolate.
Her priests sigh.
Her virgins are afflicted,
and she herself is in bitterness.
Her adversaries have become the head.
Her enemies prosper;
for the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.
Her young children have gone into captivity before the adversary.
All majesty has departed from the daughter of Zion.
Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture.
They have gone without strength before the pursuer.
Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries
all her pleasant things that were from the days of old;
when her people fell into the hand of the adversary,
and no one helped her.
The adversaries saw her.
They mocked at her desolations.
Jerusalem has grievously sinned.
Therefore she has become unclean.
All who honoured her despise her,
because they have seen her nakedness.
Yes, she sighs and turns backward.
Her filthiness was in her skirts.
She didn’t remember her latter end.
Therefore she has come down astoundingly.
She has no comforter.
“See, LORD, my affliction;
for the enemy has magnified himself.”
The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things;
for she has seen that the nations have entered into her sanctuary,
concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.
All her people sigh.
They seek bread.
They have given their pleasant things for food to refresh their soul.
“Look, LORD, and see,
for I have become despised.”
“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?”
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
Luke 22:1-23
Now the feast of unleavened bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching. The chief priests and the scribes sought how they might put him to death, for they feared the people.
Satan entered into Judas, who was also called Iscariot, who was counted with the twelve. He went away and talked with the chief priests and captains about how he might deliver him to them. They were glad, and agreed to give him money. He consented and sought an opportunity to deliver him to them in the absence of the multitude.
The day of unleavened bread came, on which the Passover must be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.”
They said to him, “Where do you want us to prepare?”
He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered into the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him into the house which he enters. Tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” ’ He will show you a large, furnished upper room. Make preparations there.”
They went, found things as Jesus had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
When the hour had come, he sat down with the twelve apostles. He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for I tell you, I will no longer by any means eat of it until it is fulfilled in God’s Kingdom.” He received a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, “Take this and share it amongst yourselves, for I tell you, I will not drink at all again from the fruit of the vine, until God’s Kingdom comes.”
He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me.” Likewise, he took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. The Son of Man indeed goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man through whom he is betrayed!”
They began to question amongst themselves which of them it was who would do this thing.
Silence may be kept.
The Benedictus (The Song of Zechariah)
Luke 1:68-79
Refrain:
The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying,
but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people;
and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David
(as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been from of old),
salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;
to show mercy toward our fathers,
to remember his holy covenant,
the oath which he swore to Abraham our father,
to grant to us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies,
should serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.
And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the dawn from on high will visit us,
to shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death;
to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen.
Refrain:
The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying,
but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Brief silence.
The Apostle’s Creed
Let us unite in this historic confession of the Christian faith:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe 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, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and will come again to judge the living 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.
Intercession and thanksgiving
Prayers may be offered for:
the day and its tasks
the world and its needs
the church and her life
Prayers may include the following concerns:
The persecuted church
The oppressed peoples of the world
All who are lonely
All who are near to death
All who are facing loss
Other intercessions and supplications may be offered as the Holy Spirit leads.
Response
Father, hear our prayer,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Silence may be kept.
Collect of the day
Almighty and everlasting God,
who in your tender love toward the human race
sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ
to take upon him our flesh
and to suffer death upon the cross:
grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility,
and also be made partakers of his resurrection;
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 forever.
Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
Standing at the foot of the cross,
as our Savior taught us, so we pray
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and forever.
Amen.
Conclusion
May Christ, who bore our sins on the cross, set us free to serve him with joy.
Amen.