Friday evening December 14
Saturday evening
Thursday evening
Preparation
Opening response
Favor us, Lord, and deliver us.
Lord, come quickly and help us.
Reveal among us the light of your presence
that we may behold your power and glory.
Prayer of thanksgiving
Blessed are you, Sovereign God,
creator of light and darkness,
to you be glory and praise forever.
As evening falls, you renew your promise
to reveal among us the light of your presence.
May your word be a lantern to our feet
and a light upon our path
that we may behold your coming among us.
Strengthen us in our stumbling weakness
and free our tongues to sing your praise.
Blessed be God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Blessed be God forever.
That this evening may be holy, good and peaceful,
let us pray with one heart and mind.
Silence is kept.
As our evening prayer rises before you, O God,
so may your mercy come down upon us
to cleanse our hearts
and set us free to sing your praise
now and forever.
Amen.
Hymn
Inspirer of the ancient seers
Charles Wesley
Inspirer of the ancient seers
Who wrote from thee the sacred page,
The same through all succeeding years;
To us, in our degenerate age,
The spirit of thy word impart,
And breathe the life into our heart.
While now thine oracles we read
With earnest prayer and strong desire,
O let thy Spirit from thee proceed,
Our souls to awaken and inspire,
Our weakness help, our darkness chase,
And guide us by the light of grace.
Whenever in error’s path we rove,
The living God through sin forsake,
Our conscience by thy word reprove,
Convince and bring the wanderers back,
Deep wounded by thy Spirit’s sword,
And then by Gilead’s balm restored.
The sacred lessons of thy grace,
Transmitted through thy word, repeat,
And train us up in all thy ways
To make us in thy will complete;
Fulfill thy love’s redeeming plan,
And bring us to a perfect man.
Thus furnished from thy treasury,
O may we always ready stand
To help the souls redeemed by thee,
In what their various states demand
To teach, convince, correct, reprove,
And build them up in holiest love!
Confession of sin
Come, Holy Spirit of God,
and search our hearts with the light of Christ.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said:
The first commandment is this:
‘Israel, listen! Our God is the one Lord,
and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your being, with all your mind,
and with all your strength.’
The second is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’
No other commandment is greater than these.
All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.
Amen. Lord, have mercy.
After a period of reflection
Come, let us return to the Lord and say:
Lord our God,
in our sin we have avoided your call.
Our love for you is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that goes away early.
Have mercy on us;
deliver us from judgment;
bind up our wounds and revive us;
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
cf Hosea 6
May almighty God,
who sent his Son into the world to save sinners,
bring us his pardon and peace, now and forever.
Amen.
The Word of God
Psalm 82
Refrain:
Rise up, God! Judge the earth.
God takes his stand in the divine council;
he gives judgment among the gods:
“How long will you judge unjustly
by granting favor to the wicked?
Give justice to the lowly and the orphan;
maintain the right of the poor and the destitute!
Rescue the lowly and the needy.
Deliver them from the power of the wicked!
They don’t know; they don’t understand;
they wander around in the dark.
All the earth’s foundations shake.
I hereby declare, “You are gods,
children of the Most High—all of you!
But you will die like mortals;
you will fall down like any prince.”
Rise up, God! Judge the earth
because you hold all nations in your possession!
Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen.
Refrain:
Rise up, God! Judge the earth.
Psalm prayer
God our deliverer,
when the foundations are shaken
and justice has departed,
defend the poor and needy
and give your people strength to fight all wrong
in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalm 90
Refrain:
I take refuge in you, Lord, my God.
Lord, you have been our help,
generation after generation.
Before the mountains were born,
before you birthed the earth and the inhabited world—
from forever in the past
to forever in the future, you are God.
You return people to dust,
saying, “Go back, humans,”
because in your perspective a thousand years
are like yesterday past,
like a short period during the night watch.
You sweep humans away like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning.
True, in the morning it thrives, renewed,
but come evening it withers, all dried up.
Yes, we are wasting away because of your wrath;
we are paralyzed with fear on account of your rage.
You put our sins right in front of you,
set our hidden faults in the light from your face.
Yes, all our days slip away because of your fury;
we finish up our years with a whimper.
We live at best to be seventy years old,
maybe eighty, if we’re strong.
But their duration brings hard work and trouble
because they go by so quickly.
And then we fly off.
Who can comprehend the power of your anger?
The honor that is due you corresponds to your wrath.
Teach us to number our days
so we can have a wise heart.
Come back to us, Lord!
Please, quick!
Have some compassion for your servants!
Fill us full every morning with your faithful love
so we can rejoice and celebrate our whole life long.
Make us happy for the same amount of time that you afflicted us—
for the same number of years that we saw only trouble.
Let your acts be seen by your servants;
let your glory be seen by their children.
Let the kindness of the Lord our God be over us.
Make the work of our hands last.
Make the work of our hands last!
Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen.
Refrain:
I take refuge in you, Lord, my God.
Psalm prayer
Almighty God,
our eternal refuge,
teach us to live with the knowledge of our death
and to rejoice in the promise of your glory,
revealed to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Old Testament reading
Isaiah 33:1-22
Doom to the destroyer left undestroyed,
you traitor whom none have betrayed:
when you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed;
and when you have stopped betraying, they will betray you.
Lord, show us favor;
we hope in you.
Be our strength every morning,
our salvation in times of distress.
At the noise, peoples fled;
on account of your roar, nations scattered.
They gathered spoil like insects;
they rushed upon it like a swarm of locusts.
The Lord is exalted; he lives on high,
filling Zion with justice and righteousness.
He will provide security during a lifetime:
a source of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge—
fear of the Lord will be Zion’s treasure.
But then those in Ariel cried out in the streets;
messengers of peace wept bitterly.
The highways were deserted;
travelers left the road.
The covenant was broken;
solemn pledges were rejected;
no one cared for humanity.
The land mourned; it wasted away;
Lebanon was ashamed; it withered.
Sharon became like the desert,
and Bashan and Carmel were dropping their leaves.
Now I will arise, says the Lord.
Now I will exalt myself; now I will stand tall.
You conceive straw, give birth to stubble;
your breath is a fire that devours you.
Peoples will be burned to lime,
thorns cut up and set ablaze.
You who are far away, hear what I have done;
and you who are near, know my strength!
Sinners became terrified in Zion;
trembling seized the godless:
“Who among us can live with the devouring fire?
Who among us can live with the everlasting blaze?”
The one who walks righteously and speaks truthfully,
who rejects profit from extortion,
who waves away a bribe instead of grabbing it,
who won’t listen to bloody plots,
and who won’t contemplate doing something evil.
He will live on the heights;
fortresses in the cliffs will be his refuge.
His food will be provided,
his water guaranteed.
When you gaze upon a king in his glamour
and look at the surrounding land,
in dismay you will think:
Where is the one who counts?
Where is the one who weighs?
Where is the one who counts towers?
You will no longer see the defiant people,
the people of speech too obscure to understand,
who stammer in an incomprehensible language.
Gaze upon Zion, our festival town.
Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
a carefree dwelling,
a tent that is not packed up,
whose stakes are never pulled up,
whose ropes won’t snap.
The Lord’s majesty will be there for us:
as a place of rivers, broad streams
where no boat will go,
no majestic ship will cross.
The Lord is our judge;
the Lord is our leader;
the Lord is our king—
he will deliver us.
Silence may be kept.
New Testament reading
Matthew 15:29-39
Jesus moved on from there along the shore of the Galilee Sea. He went up a mountain and sat down. Large crowds came to him, including those who were paralyzed, blind, injured, and unable to speak, and many others. They laid them at his feet, and he healed them. So the crowd was amazed when they saw those who had been unable to speak talking, and the paralyzed cured, and the injured walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.
Now Jesus called his disciples and said, “I feel sorry for the crowd because they have been with me for three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry for fear they won’t have enough strength to travel.”
His disciples replied, “Where are we going to get enough food in this wilderness to satisfy such a big crowd?”
Jesus said, “How much bread do you have?”
They responded, “Seven loaves and a few fish.”
He told the crowd to sit on the ground. He took the seven loaves of bread and the fish. After he gave thanks, he broke them into pieces and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. Everyone ate until they were full. The disciples collected seven baskets full of leftovers. Four thousand men ate, plus women and children. After dismissing the crowds, Jesus got into the boat and came to the region of Magadan.
Silence may be kept.
Gospel canticle
The Magnificat (The Song of Mary)
Refrain:
You show mercy to everyone, from one generation to the next, who honors you as God.
With all my heart I glorify the Lord!
In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.
He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant.
Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored
because the mighty one has done great things for me.
Holy is his name.
He shows mercy to everyone,
from one generation to the next,
who honors him as God.
He has shown strength with his arm.
He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations.
He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty-handed.
He has come to the aid of his servant Israel,
remembering his mercy,
just as he promised to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to Abraham’s descendants forever.
Luke 1:46-55
Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now
and will be forever. Amen.
Refrain:
You show mercy to everyone, from one generation to the next, who honors you as God.
Brief silence.
The Apostle’s Creed
Let us unite in this historic confession of the Christian faith:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
Prayers
Thanksgiving and intercession
Thanksgiving may be made for the day.
Intercessions are offered
for peace
for individuals and their needs
Prayers may include the following concerns:
The church, that she may be ready for the coming of Christ
The leaders of the church
The nations, that they may be subject to the rule of God
Those who are working for justice in the world
The broken, that they may find God’s healing
Other intercessions and supplications may be offered as the Holy Spirit leads.
Response
Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer.
Silence may be kept.
Collect of the day
O Lord, raise up, we pray, your power
and come among us,
and with great might succor us;
that whereas, through our sins and wickedness
we are grievously hindered
in running the race that is set before us,
your bountiful grace and mercy
may speedily help and deliver us;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honor and glory, now and forever.
Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
Awaiting his coming in glory, as our Savior taught us, so we pray
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and forever.
Amen.
Conclusion
May the Lord, when he comes, find us watching and waiting.
Amen.