Morning Prayer

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 Lessons

Psalm 5

⁽¹⁾ Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my meditation. ⁽²⁾ Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, For to You I will pray. ⁽³⁾ My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up. ⁽⁴⁾ For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You.

⁽⁵⁾ The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity. ⁽⁶⁾ You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. ⁽⁷⁾ But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy; In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple. ⁽⁸⁾ Lead me, O LORD, in Your righteousness because of my enemies; Make Your way straight before my face.

⁽⁹⁾ For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; Their inward part is destruction; Their throat is an open tomb; They flatter with their tongue. ⁽¹⁰⁾ Pronounce them guilty, O God! Let them fall by their own counsels; Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, For they have rebelled against You. ⁽¹¹⁾ But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; Let those also who love Your name Be joyful in You. ⁽¹²⁾ For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous; With favor You will surround him as with a shield.

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 6

⁽¹⁾ O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger, Nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure. ⁽²⁾ Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am weak; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are troubled. ⁽³⁾ My soul also is greatly troubled; But You, O LORD -- how long? ⁽⁴⁾ Return, O LORD, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies' sake!

⁽⁵⁾ For in death there is no remembrance of You; In the grave who will give You thanks? ⁽⁶⁾ I am weary with my groaning; All night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears. ⁽⁷⁾ My eye wastes away because of grief; It grows old because of all my enemies. ⁽⁸⁾ Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity; For the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping.

⁽⁹⁾ The LORD has heard my supplication; The LORD will receive my prayer. ⁽¹⁰⁾ Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled; Let them turn back and be ashamed suddenly.

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.

Deuteronomy Chapter 4

⁽¹⁵⁾ Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, ⁽¹⁶⁾ lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female, ⁽¹⁷⁾ the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, ⁽¹⁸⁾ the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth.

⁽¹⁹⁾ And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. ⁽²⁰⁾ But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His people, an inheritance, as you are this day. ⁽²¹⁾ Furthermore the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. ⁽²²⁾ But I must die in this land, I must not cross over the Jordan; but you shall cross over and possess that good land.

⁽²³⁾ Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the LORD your God has forbidden you. ⁽²⁴⁾ For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

2 Corinthians Chapter 11

⁽¹⁾ Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly -- and indeed you do bear with me. ⁽²⁾ For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. ⁽³⁾ But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. ⁽⁴⁾ For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted -- you may well put up with it!

⁽⁵⁾ For I consider that I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles. ⁽⁶⁾ Even though I am untrained in speech, yet I am not in knowledge. But we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things. ⁽⁷⁾ Did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge? ⁽⁸⁾ I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you.

⁽⁹⁾ And when I was present with you, and in need, I was a burden to no one, for what I lacked the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied. And in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so I will keep myself. ⁽¹⁰⁾ As the truth of Christ is in me, no one shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia. ⁽¹¹⁾ Why? Because I do not love you? God knows! ⁽¹²⁾ But what I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast.

⁽¹³⁾ For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. ⁽¹⁴⁾ And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. ⁽¹⁵⁾ Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. ⁽¹⁶⁾ I say again, let no one think me a fool. If otherwise, at least receive me as a fool, that I also may boast a little.

⁽¹⁷⁾ What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were, foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. ⁽¹⁸⁾ Seeing that many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast. ⁽¹⁹⁾ For you put up with fools gladly, since you yourselves are wise! ⁽²⁰⁾ For you put up with it if one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one strikes you on the face.

⁽²¹⁾ To our shame, I say that we were too weak for that! But in whatever anyone is bold -- I speak foolishly -- I am bold also.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Matthew Chapter 6

⁽¹⁶⁾ Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. ⁽¹⁷⁾ But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, ⁽¹⁸⁾ so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. ⁽¹⁹⁾ Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;

⁽²⁰⁾ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ⁽²¹⁾ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ⁽²²⁾ The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. ⁽²³⁾ But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

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

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
he has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior,
born of the house of his servant David.

Through his holy prophets he promised of old,
that he would save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant.

This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham,
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
Free to worship him without fear,
holy and righteous in his sight
all the days of our life.

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
To give his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.

In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and 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.


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:  Eighth Sunday after the Epiphany
Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of 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