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St. Catherine Evening Prayer (Abbreviated Recording)
St. Catherine Evening Prayer (Complete Recording Part I)
St. Catherine Evening Prayer (Complete Recording Part II)
SERVICE OF LIGHT
Greeting/Invocation
We light the EASTER CANDLE and say or sing:
Christ our Light!
~Thanks be to God!
Christ is risen, alleluia!
~He is risen indeed, alleluia!
HYMN FOR ST. CATHERINE’S DAY
We honor you, O Catherine, with highest praise for your renown;
Your light shines brightly for the Church, while jewels of beauty fill your crown.
Your virtues and your life of love blossomed in beauty before God;
With humble, active mind and heart, you chose the Cross’s path to trod.
In troubled times you were a star announcing true salvation’s peace;
Restoring Christian ways of life, and causing angry strife to cease.
The Holy Spirit prompted you to utter words of burning zeal
and shed God’s Wisdom’s light abroad with Charity as sacred seal.
Beloved spouse of Jesus Christ set our cold hearts aglow with love,
That by your prayers we too may seek His Kin-dom and all things above.
Text: Te Catharina, Maximis (Dominican Antiphonal) ; Tune: JESU DULCIS MEMORIA, L.M.
SERVICE OF THE WORD
Evening Psalmody
Antiphon One
My faith is firmly established
for I have built my life on Christ, Alleluia!
Psalm 83/84
O Holy One, you have blessed your land
and averted the destruction of Jacob,
You forgave your people’s iniquity
covering all of their shame,
You blessed them and raised up new hope;
Forgiving with merciful love.
Revive us now, God, our Helper!
Refine us with the Fire of your Love!
Restore once again our life,
That all people may rejoice in you!
Show us your Love and Compassion
And grant us your saving help.
I will hear what Adonai has to say,
Speaking with a voice of peace,
Peace for this people and the saints
Who turn their hearts to Love:
New life is drawing near,
Glory is filling the land.
Kindness and faithfulness have embraced;
Righteousness and peace have kissed.
Truth sprouts from the earth,
While justice leans down from heaven.
Adonai will grant what is good,
And Earth will bear her fruit;
Justice will walk ahead
And guide us in the ways of peace.
Glory to the ONE and the WORD
And the BREATH of Love!
As always before,
so now and evermore. Amen
My faith is firmly established
for I have built my life on Christ, Alleluia!
Antiphon Two
The Love of God has been poured forth
in our hearts by the Spirit who is living in us, Alleluia! Alleluia!
Psalm 137/138
I thank you, Adonai, with all my heart,
you have heard the words of my mouth.
Before the angels I will bless you;
and adore before your holy temple.
I thank you for your faithfulness and love
which excel all we ever knew of you.
On the day I called you answered me;
you increased the strength of my soul.
All earth’s rulers shall thank you
when they hear the words of your mouth.
They shall sing of your ways, Adonai:
“How great is the glory and power of God!”
You are exalted, yet look with tenderness on the lowly;
and you know the ways of the haughty and proud.
Though I walk in the midst of anxiety and fear,
you give me life and frustrate my foes.
You stretch forth your hand and save me,
your hand will do all things for me.
Your love, Adonai, is eternal,
discard not the work of your hands.
Glory to the ONE and to the WORD
And to the BREATH of Love;
as always before,
so now and evermore. Amen.
The Love of God has flooded our inmost heart
through the Holy Spirit who is living in us, Alleluia! Alleluia!
Antiphon Three
God has reconciled all things through Christ
making peace by the blood of his cross:
R. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Revelation 4: 11; 5:9-10, 12
You are worthy Adonai, Our God, to receive all glory and honor and power,
For you have created all things; by your will they were created and have their being.
R. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals,
For you were slain, and by your blood you have ransomed for God
saints of every tribe and language, people and nation;
you have made of them a kin-dom to serve our God as priests;
and they shall reign upon the earth.
R. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Worthy is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain to receive
all power and wealth, wisdom and might, honor and glory and praise.
Praise and honor, glory and power, to the One who sits upon the throne
and to the Lamb forever. Amen.
God has reconciled all things through Christ
making peace by the blood of his cross,
R. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
READING 2 Corinthians 4: 5, 8-11
We do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus. …We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
Responsory
R. If you have been raised with Christ seek that things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
* Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are below, alleluia!
V. For where you Treasure is, there will your heart be also.
* Set your mind on things that are above, no on things that are below, alleluia!
V. Glory to the Abba and the Word and the Holy Breath of Love.
Gospel Canticle
Antiphon
Eternal God, receive the sacrifice of my life for the sake of your People,
Accept my heart; impress upon it the face of your Son, my Love, Jesus Christ, Alleluia!
Canticle of Mary
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 the Word
And to the Holy Breath of Love
As always before
So now and evermore. Amen
Eternal God, receive the sacrifice of my life for the sake of your People,
Accept my heart; impress upon it the face of your Son, my Love, Jesus Christ, Alleluia!
SERVICE OF PRAYER
Litany of Intercession
O Risen Love, you appeared first to women and made them the first apostles and evangelists of the Resurrection;
~may the many gifts you have given to women for leadership and service be recognized and affirmed in communities of faith and in civic and economic life.
O Risen Love, you appeared to the disciples huddled in fear and breathed on them the life-force of your loving Spirit;
~may each of us inhale your gift of forgiveness, permit it to transform our hearts, and then join you in breathing forgiveness and compassion into this world gasping for life.
O Risen Love, you revealed yourself to dejected and despondent disciples in the simple-yet-sacred act of breaking-and-sharing bread;
~may we recognize the sacred in every part of our lives and the power of your presence in the sharing of all your gifts that nourish and sustain life.
O Risen Love, you revealed yourself to Thomas as the One-Who-Had-Been-Slain, and to Saul as the One-Who-Is-Being-Persecuted;
~may we recognize you in all those who have been wounded by scapegoating, oppression, racism, imprisonment, addictions, mental illness, sickness, depression, and disillusionment.
O Risen Love, you revealed yourself to St. Catherine and gave her your heart so that she could bring your passion for Truth and compassion for Humanity to her work as Spiritual Mother, Peacemaker and Reformer of Church and Society;
~may all who exercise spiritual motherhood, or work for peace and the common good be filled with your burning love and find your mercy and compassion manifest in everyone and everything.
O Risen Love, with every appearance you blessed your disciples with deep peace, profound joy, and the end of fear;
~ may our celebration of these great 50 Days of Easter extend these blessings to all our sisters and brothers and all of your beloved creation.
Prayer of Jesus
Our Father…
Closing Prayer
We bless and thank you, O Gracious God, for all that you have done in raising Jesus from the dead. You have conquered the power of death and opened to us the way to the freedom, flourishing and fullness of life which your love offers to us and all of your creation. May the Risen Christ open our eyes and breathe into our hearts that we may recognize him in the wounds of the world, know him in the breaking and sharing of bread, and follow him in his risen life now and forever. Amen
Blessing
May the God of Love who blessed St. Catherine with Wisdom and Love
+ bless us with a passion for Truth and compassion for all Earthkind, Alleluia!
~Amen, Alleluia!
Let us bless Adonai, Alleluia, Alleluia!
~Thanks be to God, Alleluia, Alleluia!
Those who wish may end evening prayer with the Marian Antiphon for the Easter Season.
Rejoice, O Heaven’s Queen, Rejoice, alleluia!
The Son you carried hidden before birth, alleluia!
Reborn, has risen from the Earth, alleluia!
Once more fulfilling promise, alleluia!
Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, Alleluia!
For our Love is truly risen, Alleluia!
Let us pray.
Holy, Immortal and Mighty God, you have brought joy to the world by raising Jesus from the dead. By the prayers of Mary his Mother, and of all the myrrh-bearing women,
raise us up with Jesus and bring us to the fullness of life. We ask this through the same Jesus Christ, our Risen Love. Amen.