Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The United States observes Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Service of Light

Greeting/Invocation

 We light the Evening Candle and say or sing:

Light and Peace in Jesus Christ our Lord!

~Thanks be to God!

 

Stay with us Lord for it is evening,

~And the day is almost over.

 

MONDAY EVENING HYMN

The blazing energies of light,

unleashed when God said, “Let it be,”

in fusion formed the womb of life,

the rain clouds and the raging sea.

 

These parted, each to its domain,

divided by the vault of sky;

untamed and turbulent, unchecked,

within them life and death would vie.

 

Those waters clothed our planet home,

so terrible and yet so fair:

the gift without which all would cease,

yet placed, so fragile, in our care.

 

Both sign and sacrament of life,

of love awash, poured out and fresh:

engulfing all that sin would spawn,

while nurt’ring life in all the rest.

 

Thus evening came and morning came

that second day when waters burst:

both flood and freshness for our world,

chaste herald of our second birth.  Amen.

Text: Aelred-Seton Shanley; Tune: Plainsong

 

 

 SERVICE OF THE WORD

PSALMODY

 Antiphon

I lie down in peace, and sleep comes at once

for Adonai makes me dwell in safety.

Psalm 4

When I call, answer me, O God of Justice!

from oppression you released me,

have mercy now, and hear me!

 

You rebels, how long

will keep your hearts closed,

will you love what is useless

and seek what is stupid and false?

 

It is Adonai who is kind

to those who are generous in mercy;

I pray that Adonai

will hear whenever I call.

 

Tremble, do not sin,

ponder on your bed and be still.

Make justice your sacrifice

and trust in our God.

 

Many people ask,

“What will make me happy?”

Let your face shine on us, O Adonai,

For you have put into our hearts greater joy,

than others provide with abundance of food and barrels of wine.

 

I lie down in peace, and sleep comes at once

for you, Adonai, make me dwell in safety.

 

Glory to the ONE and to the WORD

And to the BREATH of Love;

as always before,

so now and evermore. Amen.

I lie down in peace, and sleep comes at once

for Adonai makes me dwell in safety.

Reading   Genesis 1: 6-8

Then God said: Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate one body of water from the other.  God made the dome, and it separated the water below the dome from the water above the dome. And so it happened. God called the dome “sky.” Evening came, and morning followed—the second day.

Responsory

R. Jesus stood there and cried out: * If any of you thirst, simply come to me!   V. The water I shall give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.  * If any of you thirst, simply come to me! 

Gospel Canticle of Mary

Antiphon

 Good cloth does not repair an old cloak

and fresh wine needs new skins.

So it is with God’s Reign, Alleluia!

It is customary to make the sign of the cross at the beginning of the Gospel Canticle.

My heart + is radiant with the Lord,

My whole being delights in God my Savior.

 

All people now will call me blessed

For God has loved this humble handmaid.

The Almighty has shown me great favor

Holy is the NAME,

 

Whose mercy embraces the faithful,

From one generation to the next.

The mighty arm of God,

Scatters the proud in their own conceit,

 

Pulls tyrants from their thrones

While lifting up the lowly:

Fills the famished with bounty,

And reveals the emptiness of riches.

 

Rescues lowly Israel,

Sharing such loving kindness,

As promised to our ancestors

To Abraham and Sarah, and their descendants forever.

 

Glory to the ONE and to  WORD

And to the BREATH of Love!

As always before,

so now and evermore.  Amen

 Good cloth does not repair an old cloak

and fresh wine needs new skins.

So it is with God’s Reign, Alleluia!

 

Service of Prayer

Litany of Intercession

For all who thirst—whose lives are endangered by lack of safe water to drink—whose crops and livestock whither from lack of rain, ~God, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

 

For the millions of women and girls who spend much of their days fetching water for their families, animals and crops, ~God, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

 

For all who suffer from too much water—from tsunamis and floods—and from the death and destruction, dampness and disease carried in the aftermath, ~God, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

 

For those who hoard water, who waste it or pollute it—forcing others to pay excessively for water that rightfully belongs to all, ~God, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

 

For those whose bodies, minds and spirits languish—cut off from the endless flow of God’s love enfleshed in self and others, in all creatures and all of creation, ~God, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

 

Prayer of Jesus

Our Father …

 

Closing Prayer & Blessing

Creator God, we stand in wonder and awe before your gift of water that brings life and nourishment through streams and rivers, marshes and swamps, lakes, seas and oceans!  We marvel at water’s beauty and diversity of forms in dew and mist, rain and snow, hail and ice, humidity, vapor and steam.  As we celebrate  the creation and distribution of water on this second day of the week, strengthen our commitment to conserve and share this gift with wisdom and respect.  As this feast commemorates the lives and legacies of Fabian, Sebastian and Martin, make us thirst for justice as they did, and use our unique gifts and abilities to build the Beloved Community on earth as it is in heaven where you live and reign now and forever.  Amen.

 

May the God of all creation +   bless us with a hunger and thirst for justice.   Amen.

 

Let us bless Adonai!    ~And give thanks to God.

 

Those who wish may end evening prayer with the Marian Antiphon for this season.

Marian Antiphon

 

Loving Mother of our Savior, holding open heaven’s only hope, Star for steerage in this vastness, rise to help us, save the sinking.  Nature’s greatest  Wonder: you have borne your own true Maker, giving human life to him. Virgin ever, before and after, that Good News from Gabriel, Word of Life for living, tell it now: mercy to all people!

 

The angel of the Lord brought the message to Mary. ~ And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

 

Let us pray.  Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ, your Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may, by his Passion and Cross, be brought to the glory of his Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.  Amen.