Morning Prayer

Easter
Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Hebrews 9:24

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


From Easter to Pentecost, Christ the Passover  can be used in place of the Venite or Jubilate.

Christ the Passover  1 Corinthians 5:7 to 8; Romans 6:9 to 11; 1 Corinthians 15:20 to 22
Alleluia.
Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us;
  therefore let us keep the feast,
Not with old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil,
  but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Alleluia.

Christ being raised from the dead will never die again;
  death no longer has dominion over him.
The death that he died, he died to sin, once for all;
  but the life he lives, he lives to God.
So also consider yourselves dead to sin,
  and alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Alleluia.

  the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For since by a man came death,
  by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die,
  so in Christ shall all be made alive. Alleluia.

Venite
The Antiphon:

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

You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8

The Lessons

Psalm 40

⁽¹⁾ I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. ⁽²⁾ He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps. ⁽³⁾ He has put a new song in my mouth -- Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD. ⁽⁴⁾ Blessed is that man who makes the LORD his trust, And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

⁽⁵⁾ Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered. ⁽⁶⁾ Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. ⁽⁷⁾ Then I said, 'Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. ⁽⁸⁾ I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.'

⁽⁹⁾ I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness In the great assembly; Indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O LORD, You Yourself know. ⁽¹⁰⁾ I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth From the great assembly. ⁽¹¹⁾ Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O LORD; Let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me. ⁽¹²⁾ For innumerable evils have surrounded me; My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; They are more than the hairs of my head; Therefore my heart fails me.

⁽¹³⁾ Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; O LORD, make haste to help me! ⁽¹⁴⁾ Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion Who seek to destroy my life; Let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor Who wish me evil. ⁽¹⁵⁾ Let them be confounded because of their shame, Who say to me, 'Aha, aha!' ⁽¹⁶⁾ Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let such as love Your salvation say continually, 'The LORD be magnified!'

⁽¹⁷⁾ But I am poor and needy; Yet the LORD thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; Do not delay, O my God.

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.

Psalm 54

⁽¹⁾ Save me, O God, by Your name, And vindicate me by Your strength. ⁽²⁾ Hear my prayer, O God; Give ear to the words of my mouth. ⁽³⁾ For strangers have risen up against me, And oppressors have sought after my life; They have not set God before them. Selah ⁽⁴⁾ Behold, God is my helper; The Lord is with those who uphold my life.

⁽⁵⁾ He will repay my enemies for their evil. Cut them off in Your truth. ⁽⁶⁾ I will freely sacrifice to You; I will praise Your name, O LORD, for it is good. ⁽⁷⁾ For He has delivered me out of all trouble; And my eye has seen its desire upon my enemies.

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.

Exodus Chapter 34

⁽¹⁸⁾ The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt. ⁽¹⁹⁾ All that open the womb are Mine, and every male firstborn among your livestock, whether ox or sheep. ⁽²⁰⁾ But the firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem him, then you shall break his neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before Me empty-handed. ⁽²¹⁾ Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.

⁽²²⁾ And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end. ⁽²³⁾ Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the LORD God of Israel. ⁽²⁴⁾ For I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither will any man covet your land when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times in the year. ⁽²⁵⁾ You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven, nor shall the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover be left until morning.

⁽²⁶⁾ The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring to the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.' ⁽²⁷⁾ Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.' ⁽²⁸⁾ So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. ⁽²⁹⁾ Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses' hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.

⁽³⁰⁾ So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. ⁽³¹⁾ Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses talked with them. ⁽³²⁾ Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them as commandments all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. ⁽³³⁾ And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.

⁽³⁴⁾ But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded. ⁽³⁵⁾ And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

1 Thessalonians Chapter 3

⁽¹⁾ Therefore, when we could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left in Athens alone, ⁽²⁾ and sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith, ⁽³⁾ that no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. ⁽⁴⁾ For, in fact, we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation, just as it happened, and you know.

⁽⁵⁾ For this reason, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor might be in vain. ⁽⁶⁾ But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always have good remembrance of us, greatly desiring to see us, as we also to see you -- ⁽⁷⁾ therefore, brethren, in all our affliction and distress we were comforted concerning you by your faith. ⁽⁸⁾ For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord.

⁽⁹⁾ For what thanks can we render to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sake before our God, ⁽¹⁰⁾ night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face and perfect what is lacking in your faith? ⁽¹¹⁾ Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you. ⁽¹²⁾ And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you,

⁽¹³⁾ so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Matthew Chapter 5

⁽²⁷⁾ You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' ⁽²⁸⁾ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ⁽²⁹⁾ If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. ⁽³⁰⁾ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

⁽³¹⁾ Furthermore it has been said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' ⁽³²⁾ But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery. ⁽³³⁾ Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.' ⁽³⁴⁾ But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God's throne;

⁽³⁵⁾ nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ⁽³⁶⁾ Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. ⁽³⁷⁾ But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.' For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

The Gospel of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

The Second Song of Isaiah      Isaiah 55:6 to 11

Seek the Lord while he wills to be found;
call upon him when he draws near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the evil ones their thoughts;
And let them turn to the Lord, and he will have compassion,
and to our God, for he will richly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as rain and snow fall from the heavens
and return not again, but water the earth,
Bringing forth life and giving growth,
seed for sowing and bread for eating,
So is my word that goes forth from my mouth;
it will not return to me empty;
But it will accomplish that which I have purposed,
and prosper in that for which I sent it.
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.


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:  Fourth Sunday of Easter
O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Collect of the Day: Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through 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