Morning Prayer: Lent 4 - Take Up Your Cross
The Call to Prayer
Happiness comes to those who put their trust in YHWH, instead of human egos or people blind to the truth!
Psalm 40:4
The Request for Presence
For your part, YHWH, don’t withhold your love from me! Let your kindness and faithfulness constantly protect me!
Psalm 40:11
The Greeting
For in you our hearts find joy; we trust in your holy Name. May your love be upon us, YHWH, as we place all our hope in you.
Psalm 33:21-22
The Hymn
Take up your cross, the Saviour said, if my disciple you would be;
deny yourself, the world forsake, and humbly follow after me.
Take up your cross; let not its weight fill frightened spirit with alarm;
His strength shall bear your spirit up, and brace your heart, and nerve your arm.
Take up your cross, nor heed the shame, nor let your foolish pride rebel:
for you the Saviour bore the cross, to save your soul from death and hell.
Take up your cross, then, in Christ’s strength, and every danger calmly brave;
‘twill guide you to a heavenly home, and lead to victory o’er the grave.
Take up your cross and follow Christ, nor think till death to lay it down,
for only those who bear the cross may hope to wear the glorious crown.
Charles William Everest
PCC Hymn #211 Take up your cross
The Refrain
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
Titus 2:11-14
The Reading
Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, ‘Who do the crowds say that I am?’ They answered, ‘John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered, ‘The Messiah of God.’ He sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone, saying, ‘The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’
Then he said to them all, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words, of them the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.’
Luke 9:18-27
The Refrain
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
Titus 2:11-14
The Psalm
Happy are those who consider the poor; YHWH delivers them in the day of trouble.
YHWH protects them and keeps them alive; they are called happy in the land.
You do not give them up to the will of their enemies.
YHWH sustains them on their sickbed; in their illness you heal all their infirmities.
As for me, I said, ‘O YHWH, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you.’
My enemies wonder in malice when I will die, and my name perish.
And when they come to see me, they utter empty words, while their hearts gather mischief; when they go out, they tell it abroad.
All who hate me whisper together about me; they imagine the worst for me.
They think that a deadly thing has fastened on me, that I will not rise again from where I lie.
Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted the heel against me.
But you, O YHWH, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may repay them.
By this I know that you are pleased with me; because my enemy has not triumphed over me.
But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence for ever.
Blessed be YHWH, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.
Psalm 41
The Refrain
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
Titus 2:11-14
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 Jesus, Saviour of the world, teach us to take up our cross and follow you. Give us the grace to imitate you. You denied yourself and went to the cross, but in so doing you became your true self—dying on the cross so you could rise from the dead. Teach us to deny what is in us that is not of you so that what you created in us could rise up and shine like stars in the night. We ask this for your glory and in the name of Jesus, Amen.
Rev. Sarina Odden Meyer
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)