Morning Prayer: Lent 3 - Invitation to Abundant Life
The Call to Prayer
The righteous cry and YHWH hears them, and delivers them from all their troubles. YHWH is near to the broken-hearted and saves those whose spirits are crushed.
Psalm 34:17-18
The Request for Presence
Be pleased, O God, to deliver me. O YHWH, make haste to help me!
Psalm 70:1
The Greeting
Let your steadfast love, O YHWH, be upon us, even as we hope in you.
Psalm 33:22
The Hymn
You thirsty ones! Come to the spring! Have you no money? Come,
buy wine and milk! Come, buy and eat, without a price or sum.
Why do you work and earn and spend on that which is not bread?
Oh listen now and come to me; eat what is good instead.
This food delights and satisfies, the food your God can give;
Incline your ear and come to me; oh hear that you may live.
Return while God may still be found and call while God will hear;
now let the wicked quit their ways, while yet the Lord is near.
My word like heaven’s snow descends; it falls like heaven’s rains;
it waters all the thirsty earth and shall not go in vain.
Andrew Donaldson
https://hymnary.org/person/Donaldson_A
PCC Hymn #190 You thirsty ones
The Refrain
I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:10b-11
The Reading
YHWH says, “All you who are thirsty, come to the water!
You who have no money, come buy food and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk, without money, and without price!
Why spend your money for what is not bread, your wages for what fails to satisfy?
Heed me, and you will eat well, you will delight in rich fare;
bend your ear and come to me, listen, that you may have life:
I will make an everlasting Covenant with you—
in fulfillment of the blessings promised to David.
See I have made of you to be a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander of the nations.
See, you will summon nations you never knew,
and nations that never knew you will come hurrying to you—
for the sake of YHWH, the Holy One of Israel, who will glorify you.
Seek me, YHWH, while I may still be found, call upon me while I am near!
Let the corrupt abandon their ways, the evil their thoughts.
Let them return to YHWH, and I will have mercy on them;
return to God, for I will freely pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways, my ways,” says YHWH.
“As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.
For just as from the heavens the rains and snow come down
and do not return there till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the sower and bread for food,
so will my word be that goes forth from my mouth:
it will not return empty, but will carry out my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.
And you will go out joyfully and be led out in peace;
the mountains and hills before you will break into cries of joy,
and all the trees in the countryside will clap their hands.
The cypress will grow in place of thorn bush,
the myrtle will replace the briers;
and they will stand as a memorial to YHWH, an everlasting sign never to be destroyed.”
Isaiah 55:1-13
The Refrain
I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:10b-11
The Psalm
Like a stag, a doe, longing for streams of cool water, my whole being longs for you, my God.
My soul aches with thirst for God, for a god that lives! When can I go and see God face to face?
My only food, day or night, is my tears; they recriminate me: “Where is your God?” they say.
These things I remember as I pour out my soul like water—how I’d go with the crowds and lead them into God’s house, amid cries of gladness and thanksgiving, drunk with the dance of celebration.
“Why so dispirited?” I ask myself. “Why so churned up inside? Hope in God!” I know I’ll praise God once again, for you are my Deliverance; you are my God.
This is why my heart despairs; I remember other days with you, in the land of Jordan, on Mount Hermon and the Hill of Mizar.
The primeval Deep is echoing in the sound of your waterfalls; your torrents rage and break over me, overwhelming me.
Every day, YHWH, you ordain your love toward me, and during the night you bring me your song. In my prayers to the God of my life,
I say to God my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do you keep me in mourning, oppressed by an unseen enemy?”
My bones are shattered by their words, foes taunt me constantly: “Where is your God?” they say.
“Why so dispirited?” I ask myself. “Why so churned up inside? Hope in God!” I know I’ll praise God once again, for you are my Deliverance; you are my God.
Vindicate me, God! Plead my cause before unjust judges! Rescue me from a lying, deceitful accuser.
For you, O God, are my stronghold, my defence. Why have you forgotten me? Why do you keep me in mourning, oppressed by an unseen enemy?
Send forth your light and your truth—let them guide me, let them bring me to your holy mountain, to your dwelling place.
Then at last I’ll go up again to the altar of God, the God of my joy and delight. My harp and lyre will sing your praise once again, O God, my God.
“Why so dispirited?” I ask myself. “Why so churned up inside? Hope in God!” I know I’ll praise God once again, for you are my Deliverance; you are my God.
Psalm 42 & 43
The Refrain
I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:10b-11
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
You alone know, O God, the depth of the longing in our hearts;
the intensity of the thirst in our souls,
And in answer, you have come to us,
lived among us,
taught and healed us,
demonstrated what the good life looks like;
Then died, to reveal the value of this life you offer.
You alone know, O God, what we need to satisfy our need,
to lead us to the life we instinctively seek,
And in answer, you have opened the door to life for us,
constantly whispered to us of your love and grace,
gently nudged us in the direction of our best life.
And so, now, as you come to us again,
as your life is proclaimed to us again,
we praise you Risen and Living One,
for the truly good life we find in you.
Amen.
John van de Laar
https://sacredise.com/the-life-that-is-truly-good/
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)