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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 Love!
~Thanks be to God!
Stay with us O Christ, for it is evening,
~And the day is almost over.
FRIDAY EVENING HYMN
The fields and plains were still ungrazed,
the ground untouched by things that crawl,
when God called creatures forth to play,
and woundrously Earth bore them all.
Then Life, beholding all was good,
in overflowing joy conceived:
“Let us now human beings make!”
God gave them breath that Sabbath eve.
“Let them, together and alone,
our image be, our likeness bear.
to you I give your kin the beasts
and all the earth into your care.
“For she has borne all living things:
her fruits will give you nourishment.
As for the flocks and herds, let them
with grass and foliage be content.”
Thus evening came and morning came,
the sixth day, giving God delight,
for everything was very good,
one with another ordered right!
The earth, God saw, was now complete—
a marvel of diversity!
So mirrors Earth its Maker’s life
revealed within the Trinity. Amen.
Text: Aelred-Seton Shanley; Tune: Plainsong
SERVICE OF THE WORD
PSALMODY
Antiphon
Send forth your Spirit, Adonai, and renew the face of the Earth!
How many are your works, Adonai!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
There is the sea, vast and spacious,
teeming with creatures beyond number—
living things both large and small.
There the ships go to and fro,
and Leviathan, the great sea monster
whom you created as a friend and companion.
All your creatures look to you
to give them their food in due season.
You open wide your hand,
they are filled with good things.
When you hide your face,
they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to the dust.
When you send your Spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the Earth.
May your glory, Adonai, endure forever;
may you always rejoice in your works—
For you look at the earth, and it trembles,
you touch the mountains, and wreathe them in smoke.
I will sing to You, Adonai all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
May my song be pleasing to you,
May my soul always bless Your Name.
Glory to the ONE and to the WORD
And to the BREATH of Love!
As always before,
so now and evermore. Amen
Send forth your Spirit, Adonai, and renew the face of the Earth!
Reading Romans 8:1-2, 10-11
There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death. If Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Responsory
R. God looked at everything in creation, *God named everything very good! V. Light and darkness, Sun, Moon, and the stars, *God named everything very good! V. Earth and Sea, Sky and Birds, Fish and all Creatures, *God named everything very good! V. Human beings in God’s image and likeness, *God named everything very good! R. God looked at everything in creation, God named everything very good!
Gospel Canticle of Mary
Antiphon
I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer,
believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.
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
I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer,
believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.
SERVICE OF PRAYER
Intercession
From heedless misuse and dishonoring of the wonders of your hand,
~ O God, deliver us.
From squandering resources, abusing our companion species, and polluting the habitat we all share,~ O God, deliver us.
From the folly of imagining ourselves the center of creation,~ O God, deliver us.
For the courage and wisdom to confess how little we have cared for your gifts,
~ Strengthen us, O God.
For the conviction that you have called us to love and restore the Earth,
~ Strengthen us, O God.
For repentance and the determination to begin our proper role in creation anew,
~ Strengthen us, O God.
Prayer of Jesus
Translation prepared for the New Zealand Book of Common Prayer
Eternal Spirit, Earth-Maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all, Loving God, in whom is heaven:
May the hallowing of your Name echo throughout the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the earth!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and forever.
Amen.
Blessing
May the God of the Cosmos + bless us with reverence, wonder and awe . Amen.
Let us bless Adonai! ~Thanks be to God.
Those who wish may end evening prayer with the Salve Regina
Marian Antiphon
Mother of Mercy, Our Queen we greet you. Our life, our hope, our happiness we hail you. We call to you as Eve’s own children, and exiles. To you we lift our hearts in sorrow and fear, in this valley of tears. Turn then, our loving Advocate, and look with favor upon us. And after our life in exile, show us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus. O gracious, O loving, O Virgin benign, our Mother Mary.
Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God;
~ That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray. Holy, Mighty and Immortal God, through the working of the Holy Spirit, you prepared the body and soul of the glorious virgin Mother Mary, as a worthy dwelling for your Word; grant that we, who celebrate her memory each evening, may with the help of her prayers, be freed from ever-present evil, and come to share the fulness of life eternal. Amen.