Morning Prayer

Epiphany
From the rising of the sun to its setting my Name shall be great among the nations, and in every place incense shall be offered to my Name, and a pure offering: for my Name shall be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 1:11

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 Lord has shown forth his glory: Come let us adore him.

The Lessons

Psalm 101

⁽¹⁾ I will sing of mercy and justice; To You, O LORD, I will sing praises. ⁽²⁾ I will behave wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when will You come to me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. ⁽³⁾ I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me. ⁽⁴⁾ A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know wickedness.

⁽⁵⁾ Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, Him I will destroy; The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, Him I will not endure. ⁽⁶⁾ My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land, That they may dwell with me; He who walks in a perfect way, He shall serve me. ⁽⁷⁾ He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house; He who tells lies shall not continue in my presence. ⁽⁸⁾ Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land, That I may cut off all the evildoers from the city of the LORD.

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 109

⁽¹⁾ Do not keep silent, O God of my praise! ⁽²⁾ For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful Have opened against me; They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. ⁽³⁾ They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, And fought against me without a cause. ⁽⁴⁾ In return for my love they are my accusers, But I give myself to prayer.

⁽⁵⁾ Thus they have rewarded me evil for good, And hatred for my love. ⁽⁶⁾ Set a wicked man over him, And let an accuser stand at his right hand. ⁽⁷⁾ When he is judged, let him be found guilty, And let his prayer become sin. ⁽⁸⁾ Let his days be few, And let another take his office.

⁽⁹⁾ Let his children be fatherless, And his wife a widow. ⁽¹⁰⁾ Let his children continually be vagabonds, and beg; Let them seek their bread also from their desolate places. ⁽¹¹⁾ Let the creditor seize all that he has, And let strangers plunder his labor. ⁽¹²⁾ Let there be none to extend mercy to him, Nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children.

⁽¹³⁾ Let his posterity be cut off, And in the generation following let their name be blotted out. ⁽¹⁴⁾ Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. ⁽¹⁵⁾ Let them be continually before the LORD, That He may cut off the memory of them from the earth; ⁽¹⁶⁾ Because he did not remember to show mercy, But persecuted the poor and needy man, That he might even slay the broken in heart.

⁽¹⁷⁾ As he loved cursing, so let it come to him; As he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him. ⁽¹⁸⁾ As he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment, So let it enter his body like water, And like oil into his bones. ⁽¹⁹⁾ Let it be to him like the garment which covers him, And for a belt with which he girds himself continually. ⁽²⁰⁾ Let this be the LORD's reward to my accusers, And to those who speak evil against my person.

⁽²¹⁾ But You, O GOD the Lord, Deal with me for Your name's sake; Because Your mercy is good, deliver me. ⁽²²⁾ For I am poor and needy, And my heart is wounded within me. ⁽²³⁾ I am gone like a shadow when it lengthens; I am shaken off like a locust. ⁽²⁴⁾ My knees are weak through fasting, And my flesh is feeble from lack of fatness.

⁽²⁵⁾ I also have become a reproach to them; When they look at me, they shake their heads. ⁽²⁶⁾ Help me, O LORD my God! Oh, save me according to Your mercy, ⁽²⁷⁾ That they may know that this is Your hand -- That You, LORD, have done it! ⁽²⁸⁾ Let them curse, but You bless; When they arise, let them be ashamed, But let Your servant rejoice.

⁽²⁹⁾ Let my accusers be clothed with shame, And let them cover themselves with their own disgrace as with a mantle. ⁽³⁰⁾ I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; Yes, I will praise Him among the multitude.

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.

Isaiah Chapter 63

⁽¹⁵⁾ Look down from heaven, And see from Your habitation, holy and glorious. Where are Your zeal and Your strength, The yearning of Your heart and Your mercies toward me? Are they restrained? ⁽¹⁶⁾ Doubtless You are our Father, Though Abraham was ignorant of us, And Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O LORD, are our Father; Our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name. ⁽¹⁷⁾ O LORD, why have You made us stray from Your ways, And hardened our heart from Your fear? Return for Your servants' sake, The tribes of Your inheritance. ⁽¹⁸⁾ Your holy people have possessed it but a little while; Our adversaries have trodden down Your sanctuary.

⁽¹⁹⁾ We have become like those of old, over whom You never ruled, Those who were never called by Your name. ⁽¹⁾ Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence -- ⁽²⁾ As fire burns brushwood, As fire causes water to boil -- To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence! ⁽³⁾ When You did awesome things for which we did not look, You came down, The mountains shook at Your presence. ⁽⁴⁾ For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him.

⁽⁵⁾ You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned -- In these ways we continue; And we need to be saved. ⁽⁶⁾ But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. ⁽⁷⁾ And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities. ⁽⁸⁾ But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.

⁽⁹⁾ Do not be furious, O LORD, Nor remember iniquity forever; Indeed, please look -- we all are Your people!

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

1 Timothy Chapter 3

⁽¹⁾ This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. ⁽²⁾ A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; ⁽³⁾ not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; ⁽⁴⁾ one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence

⁽⁵⁾ (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); ⁽⁶⁾ not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. ⁽⁷⁾ Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. ⁽⁸⁾ Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money,

⁽⁹⁾ holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. ⁽¹⁰⁾ But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. ⁽¹¹⁾ Likewise their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. ⁽¹²⁾ Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

⁽¹³⁾ For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. ⁽¹⁴⁾ These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; ⁽¹⁵⁾ but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. ⁽¹⁶⁾ And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Mark Chapter 11

⁽²⁷⁾ Then they came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him. ⁽²⁸⁾ And they said to Him, 'By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority to do these things?' ⁽²⁹⁾ But Jesus answered and said to them, 'I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things: ⁽³⁰⁾ The baptism of John -- was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me.'

⁽³¹⁾ And they reasoned among themselves, saying, 'If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?' ⁽³²⁾ But if we say, 'From men' ' -- they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed. ⁽³³⁾ So they answered and said to Jesus, 'We do not know.' And Jesus answered and said to them, 'Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.' ⁽¹⁾ Then He began to speak to them in parables: 'A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. ⁽²⁾ Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. ⁽³⁾ And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ⁽⁴⁾ Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.

⁽⁵⁾ And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some. ⁽⁶⁾ Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, 'They will respect my son.' ⁽⁷⁾ But those vinedressers said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' ⁽⁸⁾ So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.

⁽⁹⁾ Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others. ⁽¹⁰⁾ Have you not even read this Scripture: 'The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. ⁽¹¹⁾ This was the LORD's doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes'?' ⁽¹²⁾ And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went away.

The Gospel of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.


Glory to God        
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to his people on earth.

Lord God, heavenly King,
almighty God and Father,
we worship you, we give you thanks,
we praise you for your glory.

Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father,
Lord God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world:
have mercy on us;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father:
receive our prayer.

For you alone are the Holy One,
you alone are the Lord,
you alone are the Most High,
Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God the Father. 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:  Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany
O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Collect of the Day: Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A Prayer for Mission: Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. 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

Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20,21