Morning Prayer: Hope Found in the Seasons
The Call to Prayer
Trust in God always, my people; pour out your hearts before God our refuge.
Psalm 62:8
The Request for Presence
It is a good thing to give thanks to YHWH, and to sing praises to your Name, O Most High;
to tell of your loving-kindness early in the morning and of your faithfulness in the night season.
Psalm 92:1-2
The Greeting
In God alone my soul finds rest, for my deliverance comes from God,
who alone is my rock, my salvation, my fortress: I will never be shaken.
Psalm 62:1-2 & 5-6
The Hymn
In the bulb there is a flower, in the seed, an apple tree,
in cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be,
unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
There’s a song in every silence, seeking word and melody;
there’s a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery,
unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
In our end is our beginning, in our time, infinity;
in our doubt there is believing, in our life, eternity,
in our death, a resurrection, at the last, a victory,
unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
Natalie Sleeth
PCC Hymn #674 In the bulb there is a flower
The Refrain
But even then, God didn’t leave you without personal evidence of the good things being done for you. God sends you rain from heaven, makes the crops grow in their seasons, and fills your hearts with food and gladness.
Acts 14:17
A Reading
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
What gain have the workers from their toil? I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil. I know that whatever God does endures for \ever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already is; and God seeks out what has gone by.
Ecclesiates 3:1-15
The Refrain
But even then, God didn’t leave you without personal evidence of the good things being done for you. God sends you rain from heaven, makes the crops grow in their seasons, and fills your hearts with food and gladness.
Acts 14:17
The Psalm
You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth,
and wine to gladden the human heart, oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the human heart.
The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
In them the birds build their nests; the stork has its home in the fir trees.
The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the coneys.
You have made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.
You make darkness, and it is night, when all the animals of the forest come creeping out.
The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.
When the sun rises, they withdraw and lie down in their dens.
People go out to their work and to their labour until the evening.
O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
Yonder is the sea, great and wide, creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great.
There go the ships, and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.
These all look to you to give them their food in due season;
when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.
May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works—
who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord.
Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 104:10-35
The Refrain
But even then, God didn’t leave you without personal evidence of the good things being done for you. God sends you rain from heaven, makes the crops grow in their seasons, and fills your hearts with food and gladness.
Acts 14:17
The Gloria
All glory to Almighty God
For love so deep, so high, so broad
The Trinity whom we adore
Forever and forevermore.
15th c. Latin, translated by Benjamin Webb
PCC Hymn #205 O love, how deep, how broad, how high
The Lord’s Prayer
The Prayer Appointed for the Day
O God of all creation, you made all that was and is and will be in such a way as to mark time, seasons, and hope. In the changing of the seasons we are reminded that beginnings and endings have their time on earth. As we enter into the darkness of winter, help us to remember that you bring goodness in the midst of it, that you walk with us through it, and that you will bring us to spring time on the other side. Help us to see that all things in life follow the wisdom of the seasons you created. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
The Concluding Prayer of the Church
God be in my head and in my understanding;
God be in my eyes and in my looking;
God be in my mouth and in my speaking;
God be in my heart and in my thinking;
God be at my end and at my departing.
R. Pynson (1514)