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SERVICE OF PRAISE
Greeting/Invocation
Each evening this week, we light the First Candle on the Advent Wreath, and say or sing:
Light and Peace in Jesus Christ our Lord!
~Thanks be to God!
Let your face shine on us, O God;
~And we shall be saved.
ADVENT EVENING HYMN
All may sing or alternate the verses of an Advent Hymn such as Come, Love, and Tarry Not. Note that the whole of creation longs for the realization of the promise–Earth suffers as long as humans are not “ruled” by LOVE.
Come, Love, and tarry not! Bring the long looked-for day!
Oh, why these years of waiting here, These ages of delay?
Come, for your saints still wait; Daily ascends our sigh;
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come!” Do you not hear the cry?
Come, for creation longs, Impatient of delay,
And yearns for endless years of good, Bright ages of your stay.
Come, and make all things new, Come, save this longing Earth;
Transform all creatures in your love, Creation’s second birth.
Text: Attr to Horatius Bonar, (1808-89). Tune: ST. BRIDGET S.M. Samuel Howard (1710-1782)
SERVICE OF THE WORD
PSALMODY
An Advent Antiphon may be sung with the Evening Psalm.
“I am your helper,” says our God,
“your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.”
Psalm 10/11
I have taken shelter in LOVE,
so how can you say to my soul:
“Go, fly like a bird to the hills,
“for the wicked are bending their bow,
fixing their arrows on the string
to shoot the just from the shadows.
When the world falls apart,
what else can the good hope to do?”
But God dwells in the holy temple,
the heavens hold God’s throne;
Love watches the world
with eyes fixed on all the nations,
weighing both righteous and wicked,
rejecting those who love violence.
Hatred burns like a fire;
war brings a scorching wind.
Truth is just and loves justice:
The loving behold God’s face.
Glory to the ONE and to the WORD
and to the BREATH of Love!
As always before,
so now and evermore. Amen
“I am your helper,” says our God,
“your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.”
READING: Philippians 3:20-21.
We eagerly await the coming of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will give a new form to this lowly body of ours and remake it according to the pattern of his glorified body, by his power to subject everything to himself. The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
Responsory:
R. Soon the Lord and ruler will come * and he shall be called Emmanuel.
V. Justice shall flower in his days and profound peace. * and he shall be called Emmanuel.
Gospel Canticle of Mary
Gospel Antiphon
The Angel Gabriel was sent to Mary,
the Virgin betrothed to Joseph.
My heart is radiant with Adonai,
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 the WORD
and to the BREATH of Love!
As always before,
so now and evermore. Amen
The Angel Gabriel was sent to Mary,
the Virgin betrothed to Joseph.
SERVICE OF PRAYER
Intercessory Prayer
Let us call on the One who is to come, the Happiness of all who wait for God’s Reign:
~ Come, Christ Jesus, do not delay.
We are waiting in joyful hope
~ For your Love to appear again.
You created the world, freeing all things to be;
~ Walk with us now in beauty and peace.
You came to share life to the full
~ Free all creation to flourish together.
You gather all in your loving embrace
~ Show us again your radiant face.
Prayer of Jesus
Our Dear Abba …
Closing Prayer & Blessing
Prepare us, O God of Love, for the coming of Jesus Christ.
May he find us waiting in expectant prayer for the full revelation of the children of God, and the flourishing of all creation. We ask this through the same Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen
May God bless us and keep us.
May the Light of God’s Face shine on us.
May God favor us + with Grace & Peace.
~Amen.
Let us bless Adonai.
~Thanks be to God.
Those who wish may complete Evening Prayer with the Marian Antiphon for the 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. We ask, O God, that we who have been privileged to receive the Good News of the Incarnation of Christ, you Son, may be prepared through his passion and cross to approach also the glory of his resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.