Sixth Sunday after Epiphany, EP II

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Service of Light

Greeting/Invocation

We light the Evening Vesper Candle and say or sing:

Light and peace in Jesus Christ our Love!

~Thanks be to God!

Sunday Evening Hymn

O radiant Light, O Sun divine, Of God the Abba’s deathless face,

O image of the Light sublime that fills the heavenly dwelling place.

O Word of God, the Source of Life, Praise is your due by night and day.

Our happy lips must raise the strain of your esteemed and splendid Name.

O Jesus Christ as daylight fades, as shine the lights of eventide,

We praise the Abba with the Word, the Spirit blest and with them one.

Text: Phos Hilaron, transl. WG Storey; Tune: J. Michael Joncas, Praise God in Song

Thanksgiving for the Light

Let us give thanks to the God of Light, always and for everything.

~In the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Praised be Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe,

who led our ancestors in the faith by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and prepared a lamp for the Anointed. Light up our darkness, O God, by the light of your Christ; may his word be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path,

for you are full of loving kindness for your whole creation and we, your creatures glorify you: Abba, Word and Holy Breath of Love, now and forever. Amen, Amen!

SERVICE OF THE WORD

Sunday Evening Psalm

Antiphon

Our God answers to no one in heaven or on earth.

Psalm 113b/115

Not to us, Adonai, not to us,

but to your Name give the glory;

because of your love and your truth,

lest the nations say, “Where is their God?”

But our God is in the heavens

and answers to no one.

Their gods are crafted by hand

nothing more than silver or gold.

They have mouths that are mute

and eyes that are blind;

they have ears that are deaf

and noses that cannot smell.

With their hands they cannot feel;

their feet cannot walk.

No sound comes from their throats,

their makers will come to be like them

and so will all who worship and trust in them.

Let all of Israel trust in Adonai

who is their help and their shield.

Let the house of Aaron trust in Adonai

who is their help and their shield.

All who reverence God, trust in Adonai,

who is your help and your shield.

God remembers us and will bless us;

will bless the house of Israel

and bless the house of Aaron.

Adonai will bless those who worship

the little no less than the great

May God bless and grant you increase,

for you and for all your children.

May you be truly blest by Adonai,

the maker of heaven and earth.

The heavens belong to Adonai

but the Earth is entrusted to us.

The dead do not sing God’s praises

nor those who go down into silence;

but we who live bless Adonai

now and forever, Amen. Alleluia!

Glory to the ONE and to the WORD

and to the BREATH of Love,

as always before,

so now and evermore, Amen.

Our God answers to no one in heaven or on earth.

Reading Matthew 5: 17-19

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Responsory

R. Though the law was given through Moses, *grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ. V. No one has ever seen God, but God’s only Son, who is nearest to the Abba’s heart, has made him known *grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.

V. Glory to the Abba and the Word and the Breath of Love.