Common Worship: Morning and Evening Prayer

Contents

Title

A note on using this Common Worship Kindle Edition

Foreword

Introduction

Notes

Morning and Evening Prayer in Ordinary Time

Morning and Evening Prayer in Seasonal Time

Prayers

Psalms

Authorization

Copyright Information

Acknowledgements and Sources

Copyright

The Lord’s Prayer

The Apostles’ Creed

A note on using this Common Worship Kindle edition

This Common Worship eBook is designed for use using either a Kindle device or on a PC, tablet or smartphone using the appropriate Kindle app.

The following notes on navigating this publication on an eBook Reader may be helpful, bearing in mind that using a prayer book is likely to be quite different to the experience of reading a novel or similar.

Finding your way around easily

♦  The Contents list contains underlined links to each section of the book

♦  You can access the Contents list from any section in the book by clicking on the underlined main heading.

♦  You can use the arrow keys to the left and right of the square select key to move forward or back a whole section at a time – e.g. from Authorization to Acknowledgements.

♦  You will also find underlined cross-reference links – e.g. from a service to the text of The Magnificat. Click on the underlined ‘here’ to go to The Magnificat. When you have finished reading The Magnificat, press the Back button to return to the section you have just left.

♦  Selecting the Menu will also give you the option you to search the text for a particular word or phrase.

Personalising your Common Worship eBook

♦  You can bookmark particular sections to mark a place to which you want to return (in much the same way as you might use a ribbon in a printed liturgical book). Go to Menu and select ‘Add Bookmark’.

♦  You can also add a note or highlight a particular section with a note, which may be helpful when planning worship or studying. Go to Menu and select ‘Add Note or Highlight’ (or ‘View Notes & Marks’ to retrieve notes you have made previously).

¶   Foreword

This selection of psalms, readings from scripture and prayers has been compiled to help busy people share more easily in the daily round of worship that forms the spiritual heartbeat of the Church in every age. It offers a simple pattern of prayer that changes through the week and with the Christian year, making the richness of the Christian tradition more accessible.

Many find it hard to sustain a pattern of prayer in the face of mounting demands on time and energy. Sometimes the words do not come; sometimes we simply do not know what to pray for. But prayer is not about trying to change God’s mind; rather it is entering into God’s presence and allowing the Holy Spirit to pray in us.

Common Worship: Morning and Evening Prayer provides a framework for this enterprise of grace. It offers forms of words which with regular use will become familiar and well-loved. As we become more and more practised, we discover a spiritual rhythm emerging so that our hearts are nourished. A discipline of prayer changes the way that we think about our lives through creating new habits of heart and mind. It opens us more deeply to the transforming grace of God.

The author of Psalm 57 writes, ‘My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready; I will sing and give you praise.’ When we pray, we are making our hearts ready to experience the love of God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Robert Exon

Chair of the Liturgical Commission

¶   Introduction

From earliest times, Christians gathered at regular hours during each day and night to respond to God’s word with praise on behalf of all creation and with intercession for the salvation of the world. By the fourth century, if not earlier, morning and evening had emerged as the pre-eminent hours for the offering of this sacrifice of praise, and they have remained so ever since.

These orders of service comply with the provisions of A Service of the Word. Derived from Common Worship: Daily Prayer, they are intended to help Christians of our own day take their part in this privilege and duty which belongs to all God’s priestly people. They may be celebrated by groups or individuals, at home or in a place of worship. Each order contains suggested short readings, and psalms are printed in the back of the volume, so that everything required for the celebration of Morning and Evening Prayer is contained within this volume. Alternatively, authorized lectionary provision may be used.

Although these are flexible orders of prayer that can be used in different ways according to the needs of particular praying people and communities, they will also, through common structures and texts, unite those using them into one larger community of prayer. This community extends to all of those who, through the ages and across the nations, have sought to do as Jesus taught us and pray together for the hallowing of God’s name and the coming of God’s kingdom.

¶   Notes

1   Required and optional parts of Morning and Evening Prayer

In order to maintain the integrity of the Order, the following should always be used. All else is optional.

¶      Opening Response

¶      A prayer of thanksgiving or a suitable hymn or an opening canticle

¶      Psalmody

¶      Reading

¶      Gospel Canticle

¶      Intercessions

¶      Collect

¶      Lord’s Prayer

¶      Conclusion

2   Saying and Singing

In the rubrics, ‘said’ and ‘sung’ are interchangeable.

3   The Thanksgiving Prayer

The Thanksgiving Prayer, beginning ‘Blessed are you …’, may be varied or improvised when appropriate.

4   The Psalms and Scripture Readings

The psalms and Scripture readings appointed for the day are indicated in the Common Worship Lectionary, published separately. These may be preferred to the psalms and short readings printed in this volume and should be used when the use of authorized lectionary provision is required. References are given in the order: book, chapter, verse. The references to the psalms in the Lectionary are to the Common Worship Psalter. When other versions are used, such adaptations are made as are necessary. For guidance on how to use the psalms, see here. The readings and psalms may be read from any version which is not prohibited.

When a reading begins with a personal pronoun, the reader may substitute the appropriate noun or name.

At the conclusion, the reader may say, ‘This is the word of the Lord’; the reply is, ‘Thanks be to God’.

5   Canticles

The canticles may be replaced by suitable hymns or songs. Metrical paraphrases may be used in place of the biblical canticles.

6   Refrains

Refrains (antiphons) have been provided, for optional use, with the canticles and the psalms. Refrains drawn from other passages of Scripture may be used.

7   Sermon

A sermon may be delivered: between the responsory and the Gospel Canticle; before the Prayers; or after the Prayers. Silence may be kept afterwards.

8   Creed

A Creed or authorized Affirmation of Faith may be said after the Gospel Canticle (or after the sermon, if there is one).

9   Prayers

Petitions of intercession, litanies, thanksgivings and other forms of extempore prayer may be used at any point in the Prayers. Some forms of prayer are provided here. The Litany (here) may be said instead of the Prayers.

10   The Collect

The Collect of the day is usually the prayer proper to the Sunday of the current week. However, the Collect of a Principal Feast, other Principal Holy Day or Festival replaces this as the Collect of the day. When a Lesser Festival falls on a weekday, its Collect may be used in place of the Sunday Collect. The Common Worship collects are published in a number of Common Worship volumes, including Common Worship: Daily Prayer, pages 412–545.

11   The Lord’s Prayer

Other words to introduce the Lord’s Prayer may be used or the introduction may be omitted.

12   The Peace

The Peace may be exchanged at the Conclusion of any order.

  The peace of the Lord be always with you

All      and also with you.

These words may be added

  Let us offer one another a sign of peace,

  God’s seal on our prayers.

For notes on the celebration of seasons and holy days, see Common Worship: Daily Prayer, pages xviii–xx.

Morning and Evening Prayer in Ordinary Time

These orders are used from 3 February (or the Monday after the Sunday on which Candlemas has been observed) until Shrove Tuesday, and again from the Monday after Pentecost until Morning Prayer on the day before All Saints’ Day (or All Saints’ Sunday).

Contents

Morning Prayer in Ordinary Time    Form One

Evening Prayer in Ordinary Time    Form One

Morning Prayer in Ordinary Time    Form Two

Evening Prayer in Ordinary Time    Form Two

¶    Morning Prayer in Ordinary Time    Form One

Preparation

O Lord, open our lips

All    and our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Either or both of the following is said or sung:

a suitable hymn, or the Venite – A Song of Triumph

  1    O come, let us sing to the Lord; ♦

let us heartily rejoice in the rock of our salvation.

  2    Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving ♦

and be glad in him with psalms.

  3    For the Lord is a great God ♦

and a great king above all gods.

  4    In his hand are the depths of the earth ♦

and the heights of the mountains are his also.

  5    The sea is his, for he made it, ♦

and his hands have moulded the dry land.

  6    Come, let us worship and bow down ♦

and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

  7    For he is our God; ♦

we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.

The canticle may end here.

  8    O that today you would listen to his voice: ♦

‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,

    on that day at Massah in the wilderness,

  9    ‘When your forebears tested me, and put me to the proof, ♦

though they had seen my works.

10    ‘Forty years long I detested that generation and said, ♦

"This people are wayward in their hearts;

    they do not know my ways."

11    ‘So I swore in my wrath, ♦

They shall not enter into my rest.’

Psalm 95

All    Glory to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit;

as it was in the beginning is now

and shall be for ever. Amen.

This opening prayer may be said

The night has passed, and the day lies open before us;

let us pray with one heart and mind.

Silence is kept.

As we rejoice in the gift of this new day,

so may the light of your presence, O God,

set our hearts on fire with love for you;

now and for ever.

All    Amen.

The Word of God

Psalmody

One or more of the following or other suitable psalms may be used

Psalm 8 (here)  Psalm 103.8-18 (here)

Psalm 57 (here)  Psalm 108 (here)

Psalm 92 (here)  Psalm 118.14-24 (here)

Each psalm or group of psalms may end with

All    Glory to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit;

as it was in the beginning is now

and shall be for ever. Amen.

If there are two Scripture readings, the first may be read here, or both may be read after the canticle.

Canticle

A Song of Deliverance may be said

Refrain:

All    All the earth, shout and sing for joy,

for great in your midst is the Holy One.

  1    ‘Behold, God is my salvation; ♦

I will trust and will not be afraid;

  2    ‘For the Lord God is my strength and my song, ♦

and has become my salvation.’

  3    With joy you will draw water ♦

from the wells of salvation.

  4    On that day you will say, ♦

‘Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name;

  5    ‘Make known his deeds among the nations, ♦

proclaim that his name is exalted.

  6    ‘Sing God’s praises, who has triumphed gloriously; ♦

let this be known in all the world.

  7    ‘Shout and sing for joy, you that dwell in Zion, ♦

for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.’

Isaiah 12.2-6

All    Glory to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit;

as it was in the beginning is now

and shall be for ever. Amen.

All    All the earth, shout and sing for joy,

for great in your midst is the Holy One.

Scripture Reading

One or more of the following or other suitable passages are read

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Genesis 1.1-5

If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards your needy neighbour. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land.’

Deuteronomy 15.7,8,10,11

They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.

Isaiah 35.2c-6

Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’

Mark 4.26-29

Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’ Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?’

John 18.33,36-38

Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Ephesians 2.13-18

The reading(s) may be followed by a time of silence.

A suitable song or chant, or a responsory in this or another form, may follow

Lord, you will guide me with your counsel

and afterwards receive me with glory.

All    Lord, you will guide me with your counsel

and afterwards receive me with glory.

For I am always with you;

you hold me by my right hand.

All    And afterwards receive me with