Opening Prayer
O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; let the whole earth stand in awe of him.
Psalm 96:9
Psalm 56
1
Be gracious to me, O God, for people trample on me;
all day long foes oppress me;
2
my enemies trample on me all day long,
for many fight against me.
O Most High, 3 when I am afraid,
I put my trust in you.
4
In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I am not afraid;
what can flesh do to me?
5
All day long they seek to injure my cause;
all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6
They stir up strife, they lurk,
they watch my steps.
As they hoped to have my life,
7
so repay* them for their crime;
in wrath cast down the peoples, O God!
8
You have kept count of my tossings;
put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your record?
9
Then my enemies will retreat
on the day when I call.
This I know, that* God is for me.
10
In God, whose word I praise,
in the LORD, whose word I praise,
11
in God I trust; I am not afraid.
What can a mere mortal do to me?
12
My vows to you I must perform, O God;
I will render thank-offerings to you.
13
For you have delivered my soul from death,
and my feet from falling,
so that I may walk before God
in the light of life
A Dialogue Of Self And Soul
by William Butler Yeats
{My Soul} I summon to the winding ancient stair;
Set all your mind upon the steep ascent,
Upon the broken, crumbling battlement,
Upon the breathless starlit air,
"Upon the star that marks the hidden pole;
Fix every wandering thought upon
That quarter where all thought is done:
Who can distinguish darkness from the soul
{My Self}. The consecrated blade upon my knees
Is Sato's ancient blade, still as it was,
Still razor-keen, still like a looking-glass
Unspotted by the centuries;
That flowering, silken, old embroidery, torn
From some court-lady's dress and round
The wooden scabbard bound and wound
Can, tattered, still protect, faded adorn
{My Soul.} Why should the imagination of a man
Long past his prime remember things that are
Emblematical of love and war?
Think of ancestral night that can,
If but imagination scorn the earth
And intellect is wandering
To this and that and t'other thing,
Deliver from the crime of death and birth.
{My self.} Montashigi, third of his family, fashioned it
Five hundred years ago, about it lie
Flowers from I know not what embroidery -Heart's purple -- and all these I set
For emblems of the day against the tower
Emblematical of the night,
And claim as by a soldier's right
A charter to commit the crime once more.
{My Soul.} Such fullness in that quarter overflows
And falls into the basin of the mind
That man is stricken deaf and dumb and blind,
For intellect no longer knows
Is from the Ought, or knower from the Known -That is to say, ascends to Heaven;
Only the dead can be forgiven;
But when I think of that my tongue's a stone.
{My Self.} A living man is blind and drinks his drop.
What matter if the ditches are impure?
What matter if I live it all once more?
Endure that toil of growing up;
The ignominy of boyhood; the distress
Of boyhood changing into man;
The unfinished man and his pain
Brought face to face with his own clumsiness;
The finished man among his enemies? -How in the name of Heaven can he escape
That defiling and disfigured shape
The mirror of malicious eyes
Casts upon his eyes until at last
He thinks that shape must be his shape?
And what's the good of an escape
If honour find him in the wintry blast?
I am content to live it all again
And yet again, if it be life to pitch
Into the frog-spawn of a blind man's ditch,
A blind man battering blind men;
Or into that most fecund ditch of all,
The folly that man does
Or must suffer, if he woos
A proud woman not kindred of his soul.
I am content to follow to its source
Every event in action or in thought;
Measure the lot; forgive myself the lot!
When such as I cast out remorse
So great a sweetness flows into the breast
We must laugh and we must sing,
We are blest by everything,
Everything we look upon is blest.
ALL:
O gracious Light,
pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,
O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!
Now as we come to the setting of the sun,
and our eyes behold the vesper light,
we sing thy praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Thou art worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,
O Son of God, O Giver of life,
and to be glorified though all the worlds.
Closing
Psalm 33
1
Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous!
For praise from the upright is beautiful.
2
Praise the LORD with the harp;
Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.
3
Sing to Him a new song;
Play skillfully with a shout of joy.
4
For the word of the LORD is right,
And all His work is done in truth.
5
He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
6
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
7
He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;[1]
He lays up the deep in storehouses.
8
Let all the earth fear the LORD;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
9
For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.
10
The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.
11
The counsel of the LORD stands forever,
The plans of His heart to all generations.
12
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.
13
The LORD looks from heaven;
He sees all the sons of men.
14
From the place of His dwelling He looks
On all the inhabitants of the earth;
15
He fashions their hearts individually;
He considers all their works.
16
No king is saved by the multitude of an army;
A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
17
A horse is a vain hope for safety;
Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.
18
Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him,
On those who hope in His mercy,
19
To deliver their soul from death,
And to keep them alive in famine.
20
Our soul waits for the LORD;
He is our help and our shield.
21
For our heart shall rejoice in Him,
Because we have trusted in His holy name.
22
Let Your mercy, O LORD, be upon us,
Just as we hope in You.
All Join hands in a circle for intercessory prayers…
ALL:
Almighty God, who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our
common supplication unto thee; and hast promised through thy well-beloved Son that
when two or three are gathered together in his Name thou wilt be in the midst of them:
Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions of thy servants as may be best for us;
granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come life everlasting.
Amen
LEADER:
The divine Spirit dwells in us.
ALL:
Thanks be to God.