Evening Prayer

Today is the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene  -- Click for Readings
Ordinary Time
I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord.' Psalm 122:1

Confession of Sin
Most merciful God,
I confess that I have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what I have done, and by what I have left undone. I have not loved you with my whole heart; I have not loved my neighbors as myself. I am truly sorry and I humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on me and forgive me; that I may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.

Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life. Amen

The Invitatory and Psalter

Lord, open our lips. And our mouth shall proclaim your praise
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   Alleluia

Venite
The Antiphon:

ⓘ   A short, reflective sentence recited alongside a psalm to deepen our understanding of the readings.

The mercy of the Lord is everlasting: Come let us adore him.

The Lessons

Psalm 45

⁽¹⁾ My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. ⁽²⁾ You are fairer than the sons of men; Grace is poured upon Your lips; Therefore God has blessed You forever. ⁽³⁾ Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Mighty One, With Your glory and Your majesty. ⁽⁴⁾ And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness; And Your right hand shall teach You awesome things.

⁽⁵⁾ Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King's enemies; The peoples fall under You. ⁽⁶⁾ Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. ⁽⁷⁾ You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions. ⁽⁸⁾ All Your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia, Out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made You glad.

⁽⁹⁾ Kings' daughters are among Your honorable women; At Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir. ⁽¹⁰⁾ Listen, O daughter, Consider and incline your ear; Forget your own people also, and your father's house; ⁽¹¹⁾ So the King will greatly desire your beauty; Because He is your Lord, worship Him. ⁽¹²⁾ And the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift; The rich among the people will seek your favor.

⁽¹³⁾ The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace; Her clothing is woven with gold. ⁽¹⁴⁾ She shall be brought to the King in robes of many colors; The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to You. ⁽¹⁵⁾ With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought; They shall enter the King's palace. ⁽¹⁶⁾ Instead of Your fathers shall be Your sons, Whom You shall make princes in all the earth.

⁽¹⁷⁾ I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations; Therefore the people shall praise You forever and ever.

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.

1 Samuel Chapter 25

⁽¹⁾ Then Samuel died; and the Israelites gathered together and lamented for him, and buried him at his home in Ramah. And David arose and went down to the Wilderness of Paran. ⁽²⁾ Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. ⁽³⁾ The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil in his doings. And he was of the house of Caleb. ⁽⁴⁾ When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep,

⁽⁵⁾ David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, 'Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. ⁽⁶⁾ And thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity: 'Peace be to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have! ⁽⁷⁾ Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us, and we did not hurt them, nor was there anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel. ⁽⁸⁾ Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David.' '

⁽⁹⁾ So when David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David, and waited. ⁽¹⁰⁾ Then Nabal answered David's servants, and said, 'Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master. ⁽¹¹⁾ Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?' ⁽¹²⁾ So David's young men turned on their heels and went back; and they came and told him all these words.

⁽¹³⁾ Then David said to his men, 'Every man gird on his sword.' So every man girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And about four hundred men went with David, and two hundred stayed with the supplies. ⁽¹⁴⁾ Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, 'Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master; and he reviled them. ⁽¹⁵⁾ But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, nor did we miss anything as long as we accompanied them, when we were in the fields. ⁽¹⁶⁾ They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep.

⁽¹⁷⁾ Now therefore, know and consider what you will do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that one cannot speak to him.' ⁽¹⁸⁾ Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five seahs of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. ⁽¹⁹⁾ And she said to her servants, 'Go on before me; see, I am coming after you.' But she did not tell her husband Nabal. ⁽²⁰⁾ So it was, as she rode on the donkey, that she went down under cover of the hill; and there were David and his men, coming down toward her, and she met them.

⁽²¹⁾ Now David had said, 'Surely in vain I have protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belongs to him. And he has repaid me evil for good. ⁽²²⁾ May God do so, and more also, to the enemies of David, if I leave one male of all who belong to him by morning light.'

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Acts Chapter 14

⁽¹⁾ Now it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude both of the Jews and of the Greeks believed. ⁽²⁾ But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. ⁽³⁾ Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. ⁽⁴⁾ But the multitude of the city was divided: part sided with the Jews, and part with the apostles.

⁽⁵⁾ And when a violent attempt was made by both the Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to abuse and stone them, ⁽⁶⁾ they became aware of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding region. ⁽⁷⁾ And they were preaching the gospel there. ⁽⁸⁾ And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb, who had never walked.

⁽⁹⁾ This man heard Paul speaking. Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, ⁽¹⁰⁾ said with a loud voice, 'Stand up straight on your feet!' And he leaped and walked. ⁽¹¹⁾ Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, 'The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!' ⁽¹²⁾ And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

⁽¹³⁾ Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes. ⁽¹⁴⁾ But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out ⁽¹⁵⁾ and saying, 'Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, ⁽¹⁶⁾ who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways.

⁽¹⁷⁾ Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.' ⁽¹⁸⁾ And with these sayings they could scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing to them.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Mark Chapter 4

⁽²¹⁾ Also He said to them, 'Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand? ⁽²²⁾ For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. ⁽²³⁾ If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.' ⁽²⁴⁾ Then He said to them, 'Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.

⁽²⁵⁾ For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.' ⁽²⁶⁾ And He said, 'The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, ⁽²⁷⁾ and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. ⁽²⁸⁾ For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.

⁽²⁹⁾ But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.' ⁽³⁰⁾ Then He said, 'To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? ⁽³¹⁾ It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; ⁽³²⁾ but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.'

⁽³³⁾ And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. ⁽³⁴⁾ But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.

The Gospel of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

A Song to the Lamb       Revelation 4:11, 5:9 to 10, 13

Splendor and honor and kingly power
are yours by right, O Lord our God,
For you created everything that is,
and by your will they were created
  and have their being;
And yours by right, O Lamb that was slain,
for with your blood you have redeemed for God,
From every family, language, people, and nation,
a kingdom of priests to serve our God.
And so, to him who sits upon the throne,
and to Christ the Lamb,
Be worship and praise, dominion and splendor,
forever and forevermore.

The Song of Zechariah Luke 1: 68 to 79

Glory to you, Lord God of our fathers;
you are worthy of praise; glory to you.
Glory to you for the radiance of your holy Name;
we will praise you and highly exalt you forever.

Glory to you in the splendor of your temple;
on the throne of your majesty, glory to you.
Glory to you, seated between the Cherubim;
we will praise you and highly exalt you forever.

Glory to you, beholding the depths;
in the high vault of heaven, glory to you.
Glory to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit;
we will praise you and highly exalt you forever.



The Apostles' Creed
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord.
  He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
  He 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, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
  He 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.

The Prayers

The Lord's Prayer   Traditional
Suffrages A

Seasonal Collect:  Proper 11 The Sunday closest to July 20
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Collect of the Day: O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Prayer for Mission: O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Personal Prayers and Reflection

This is a time to pause, consider and listen. Pray for yourself and others. When you lack the words


Closing Prayers   Thanksgiving

Conclude with the following
Let Us Bless the Lord, Thanks be to God

May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Romans 15:13