PREPARATION

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O God, make speed to save us.

All   O Lord, make haste to help us.

Let your ways be known upon earth

All   your saving power among the nations.

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Blessed are you, Lord God of our salvation,
to you be glory and praise for ever.
As we behold your Son, enthroned on the cross,
stir up in us the fire of your love,
that we may be cleansed from all our sins,
and walk with you in newness of life
singing the praise of him who died
for us and our salvation.
Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

All   Blessed be God for ever.

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That this evening may be holy, good and peaceful,
let us pray with one heart and mind.

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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 for ever.

All   Amen.

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THE WORD OF GOD

 

Lamentations 2:8-19

 

The Lord determined to lay in ruins
   the wall of daughter Zion;
he stretched the line;
   he did not withhold his hand from destroying;
he caused rampart and wall to lament;
   they languish together. 

Her gates have sunk into the ground;
   he has ruined and broken her bars;
her king and princes are among the nations;
   guidance is no more,
and her prophets obtain
   no vision from the Lord. 

The elders of daughter Zion
   sit on the ground in silence;
they have thrown dust on their heads
   and put on sackcloth;
the young girls of Jerusalem
   have bowed their heads to the ground. 

My eyes are spent with weeping;
   my stomach churns;
my bile is poured out on the ground
   because of the destruction of my people,
because infants and babes faint
   in the streets of the city. 

They cry to their mothers,
   ‘Where is bread and wine?’
as they faint like the wounded
   in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
   on their mothers’ bosom. 

What can I say for you, to what compare you,
   O daughter Jerusalem?
To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you,
   O virgin daughter Zion?
For vast as the sea is your ruin;
   who can heal you? 

Your prophets have seen for you
   false and deceptive visions;
they have not exposed your iniquity
   to restore your fortunes,
but have seen oracles for you
   that are false and misleading. 

All who pass along the way
   clap their hands at you;
they hiss and wag their heads
   at daughter Jerusalem;
‘Is this the city that was called
   the perfection of beauty,
   the joy of all the earth?’ 

All your enemies
   open their mouths against you;
they hiss, they gnash their teeth,
   they cry: ‘We have devoured her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for;
   at last we have seen it!’ 

The Lord has done what he purposed,
   he has carried out his threat;
as he ordained long ago,
   he has demolished without pity;
he has made the enemy rejoice over you,
   and exalted the might of your foes. 

Cry aloud to the Lord!
   O wall of daughter Zion!
Let tears stream down like a torrent
   day and night!
Give yourself no rest,
   your eyes no respite! 

Arise, cry out in the night,
   at the beginning of the watches!
Pour out your heart like water
   before the presence of the Lord!
Lift your hands to him
   for the lives of your children,
who faint for hunger
   at the head of every street. 

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This is the Word of the Lord

All   Thanks be to God

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CANTICLE

The Song of Christ’s Glory, 

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All   At the name of Jesus

every knee shall bow. 

 

1 Christ Jesus was in the form of God, 
but he did not cling to equality with God.

2 He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, 
and was born in our human likeness.

3 Being found in human form he humbled himself, 
and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

4 Therefore God has highly exalted him, 
and bestowed on him the name above every name,

5 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 
in heaven and on earth and under the earth;

6 And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2.5-11

All   Glory to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now
and shall be for ever. Amen.

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All    At the name of Jesus
        every knee shall bow. 

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Colossians 1:18-23

 

He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him—provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.

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Responsary

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you;

All   by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.

Christ committed no sin, no guile was found on his lips.

All   We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree
that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

All   By your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.

By his wounds you have been healed.

All   We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you;

by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.

cf 1 Peter 2

GOSPEL CANTICLE

The Magnificat 

 

All   God’s love for us is revealed

in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.

1 My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour; 
he has looked with favour on his lowly servant.

2 From this day all generations will call me blessed; 
the Almighty has done great things for me
and holy is his name.

3 He has mercy on those who fear him, 
from generation to generation.

4 He has shown strength with his arm 
and has scattered the proud in their conceit,

5 Casting down the mighty from their thrones 
and lifting up the lowly.

6 He has filled the hungry with good things 
and sent the rich away empty.

7 He has come to the aid of his servant Israel, 
to remember his promise of mercy,

8 The promise made to our ancestors, 
to Abraham and his children for ever.

Luke 1.46-55

All     Glory to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now
and shall be for ever. Amen.

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All     God’s love for us is revealed

in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.

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