Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal Truth.

Leader: Come, let us pray joyfully to our ever-creative God –

Let us greet God with thanksgiving.

All: O that today we will hear God’s voice & harden not our hearts.

Leader: Let us bow down in prayer before our God for it is our God who made us, shepherds us, & guides us.

All: O that today we will hear God’s voice & harden not our hearts.

Please join in the hymn.

Refrain: Keep in mind that Jesus Christ has died for us

& is risen from the dead.

He is our saving Lord, He is joy for all ages.

If we die with the Lord, we shall live with the Lord.

Refrain.

If we endure with the Lord, we shall reign with the Lord.

Refrain.

In him all our sorrow, in him all our joy. Refrain.

In him hope of glory, in him all our love. Refrain.

We will sing our first psalm.

Cantors: Your faithful shall ring out their joy

As they enter your dwelling place, Lord

Side 1: Our God swore to David a firm promise

From which he will not withdraw:

Side 2: Your own offspring

I will set upon your throne.

Side 1: If your sons keep my covenant

And the decrees that I shall teach them,

Side 2: Their sons too, forever,

Shall sit upon your throne.

Side 1: For the Lord has chosen Zion;

He prefers her for his dwelling.

Side 2: Zion is my resting place for ever;

In her will I dwell, for I prefer her.

Side 1: In her will I make a horn to sprout forth for David;

I will place a lamp for my anointed.

Side 2: His enemies I will clothe with shame,

But upon him my crown shall shine.

All: Glory be to the Father and to the Son

And to the Holy Spirit;

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be,

World without end, Amen.

All: Your faithful shall ring out their joy

As they enter your dwelling place, Lord.

Our second psalm tonight is a contemporary one for Lent,

(Edward Hays), which will be read as indicated.

Side 1:

Come, O Life-giving Creator, & rattle the door latch of our

slumbering hearts. Awaken us, as you breathe, upon a winter-

wrapped earth, gently calling to life a virgin Spring.

Side 2:

Awaken in these fortified days of Lenten prayer &

discipline our youthful dreams of holiness. Call us forth

from the prison camps of our numerous past defeats & our

narrow patterns of being to make our ordinary extra-

ordinarily alive, through the passion of our love.

Side 1:

Show to us during these Lent days how to take the daily things

of life &, by submerging them in the sacred, to infuse them

with a great love for you, O God, & for others.

Side 2:

Guide us to perform simple acts of love & prayer, the real

works of reform & renewal of this overture to the Spring

of the Spirit. O Father of Jesus, Mother of Christ, help

us not to waste these precious Lenten days of our souls’

spiritual Springtime.

All: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy

Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall

be, world without end, Amen.

Reading (Ps 94) followed by a pause for reflection.

For our God is the great God, the great King above all gods.
In our God’s hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.

The sea is God’s, for he made it and his hands formed the dry land.

Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before God, our maker;
for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.

Today, if only you would hear God’s voice, harden not your heart.

Please sing the Magnificat.

Cantors: A woman in the crowd called out, ‘Blessed is the womb

that bore you, & the breasts that suckled you’. Jesus

said to her, ‘Blessed , rather, those who hear the

word of God & keep it’.

Side 1: My being proclaims your greatness,

And my spirit finds joy in you, God my Saviour;

Side 2: For you have looked upon me, your servant, in my lowliness:

All ages to come shall call me blessed.

Side 1: God, you who are mighty, have done great things for me:

Holy is your name.

Side 2: Your mercy is from age to age

Towards those who fear you.

Side 1: You have shown might with your arm,

And confused the proud in their inmost thoughts.

Side 2: You have deposed the mighty from their thrones,

And raised the lowly to high places.

Side 1: The hungry you have given every good thing,

While the rich you have sent away empty.

Side 2: You have upheld Israel, your servant,

Ever mindful of your mercy-

Side 1: Even as you promised our ancestors,

Promised Abraham, Sarah, and their descendants for ever.

All: Give praise to the Father Almighty

To his Son Jesus Christ our Lord

To the Spirit who dwells in our hearts

Both now and for ever, Amen.

All: A woman in the crowd called out,

‘Blessed is the womb that bore you, & the breasts that suckled you’.

Jesus said to her, ‘Blessed, rather, those who hear the word of God & keep it’.

Intercessions:

Reader: Holy God, in whom we live & move & have our being, we make our prayer of confession to you – Lord have mercy – pause…….