I LENT Wednesday | THE DAILY FEAST

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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!

O Adonai, You are my light;

~My God, You illumine my darkness.

EVENING HYMN for LENT

For forty days Christ fasted, fed upon his Abba’s every word–

all for the joy that lay ahead; such were his pleas, his prayer was heard.

Though one with God he plunged his heart deep in the world’s unfathomed pain;

he wrestled demons, hunger, thirst, that we in him may do the same.

In Christ our journey is revealed: his face set toward Jerusalem.

Where he, our head, goes, so must we: the church, his body, one with him.

O Abba, Food of those who fast, O Christ in whom the least are known,

Earth’s rising sap, O Spirit-spring: come raise to life what you have sown! Amen.

Tune: CHRIST OUR LIGHT L.M. Plainsong Mode IV; Text: Aelred Seton-Shanley

SERVICE OF THE WORD

PSALMODY

Antiphon

We have these days of contemplation and prayer

to turn away from our sins and work for salvation.

Psalm 102/103a

My soul, give thanks to Adonai,

all my being, bless the Holy Name.

My soul, give thanks to Adonai

and never forget all these blessings.

Bless God, who forgives all your sin,

who heals every one of your ills,

who snatches you free from death,

who enfolds you with tender compassion

who fills your life with goodness

and gives you the strength of an eagle.

Adonai does deeds of justice

and defends the poor and oppressed;

Teaches God’s ways to Moses

and God’s deeds to the children of Israel.

Adonai is compassion and love,

patient and rich in mercy.

God will not accuse us for long,

nor bring our sins to trial,

nor exact from us in kind

nor give us what our sins deserve.

As high as the heavens are above the Earth,

so great is God’s love for those who trust.

As far as the east is from the west,

so far does God remove our sins.

As parents have compassion on their children,

Adonai has pity on those who are reverent,

for Adonai knows of what we are made,

and remembers that we are dust.

The love of Adonai is everlasting

upon those who revere God’s Holiness;

whose justice reaches out to all generations

when they keep God’s will in their minds and hearts.

Glory to the ONE and to the WORD

And to the BREATH of Love;

as always before,

so now and evermore. Amen.

We have these days of contemplation and prayer

to turn away from our sins and work for salvation.

Reading Jonah

Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles: “Neither human nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water. Humans and beasts shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; every man and woman shall turn from evil ways and from the violence any have in hand. Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold such blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish.”

Responsory

R. Now is the acceptable time, *now is the day of salvation.

V. As servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way: through great endurance, by genuine love. *now is the day of salvation.

V. Glory to the ONE, to the WORD, and to the Holy BREATH of Life.

Gospel Canticle of Mary

Antiphon

To a perverse people this single sign:

Jonah, and yet one greater than Jonah or Solomon here.

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

To a perverse people this single sign:

Jonah, and yet one greater than Jonah or Solomon here.