Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer

Leader: Creator God, ever-present like the steady fall of waves on the shore,

All: We hear your call.

Leader: Jesus, companion, as close to us as the beating of our hearts,

All: We hear your call.

Leader: Holy Spirit, on the wind, in the heart-stirring music of the wild geese,

All: We hear your call.

Let us join in the Taize refrain: Christe Salvator, Filius Patris, Dona nobis Pacem.

(Christ the saviour, son of the father, grant of peace). Taize Laudate Tr17.

Ps. 114 & its antiphon will be said as indicated.

All: Lord, keep my soul from death, my feet from stumbling.

Reader:

I love you, Lord, because you have heard my voice and my supplications, because you have inclined your ear to me. Therefore I will call on you as long as I live. The cords of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered sorrow and anguish. Then I called on your name: ‘Oh Lord, I beseech you save my life!’ Gracious are you, Lord, and righteous; you are full of compassion. You protect the simple hearted; when I was brought low, you saved me. Be at rest once more, oh my soul, for the Lord has been good to you. For you, O my feet from stumbling. I walk before you, Lord, in the land of the living. I believe even when I say, ‘I am completely crushed.’ In my dismay I declared, ‘No-one can be relied on.’ What return can I make to you, Lord, for all your goodness to me? I will take up the cup of salvation, invoking the name of the Lord. I will pay what I vowed to the Lord. May the whole nation be present! Precious in your eyes is the death of your faithful. Lord, I am your servant, your servant, born of a pious family; you have freed me from my bonds. I will offer you the thanksgiving sacrifice, invoking your name. Lord. I will walk in your presence in the land of the living. I will fulfil what I vowed to you in the presence of all the people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, Jerusalem.

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: Lord, keep my soul from death, my feet from stumbling.

Ps. 120 & its antiphon will be sung as indicated.

Cantors: My help shall come from the Lord

Who made heaven & earth.

Side 1: I lift up my eyes to the mountains.

Where is help to come from?

Side 2: My help comes from the Lord,

Who made heaven & earth.

Side 1: The Lord does not let our footsteps slip!

Our guard does not sleep!

Side 2: The guardian of Israel does not slumber or sleep.

The Lord guards you, shades you.

Side 1: With the Lord at your right hand

The sun cannot harm you by day, nor the moon at night.

Side 2: The Lord guards you from harm,

Protects your lives;

Side 1: The Lord watches over your coming & going,

Now & for always.

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: My help shall come from the Lord

Who made heaven & earth.

Reading (Genesis 37) followed by silent reflection.

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

When Joseph told his father as well as his brothers about his dreams, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” His brothers were jealous of him. Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem, 13and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.” When Reuben, one of the brothers, heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it. Then later they said, ‘Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed. So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. The brothers took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.” He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.” Then Jacob mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.” So his father wept for him.

Please say the Magnificat & antiphon as indicated.

All: He will bring those bad people to a bad end, & hand

the vineyard over to other tenants, who will give him

the fruits in due season.

My soul extols the Lord and my spirit has exulted in God my saviour, because he has looked favourably on the humble state of his slave girl.

For look! From now on, all generations will congratulate me because the powerful one has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

And his mercy is for generation after generation on those who fear him.

He has done a mighty deed with his arm.

He has scattered those who are haughty in the thoughts of their heart.

He has deposed rulers from their thrones and raised up the humble.

The hungry he has filled with good things

and the wealthy he has sent away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel, remembering his mercy.

As he spoke to our ancestors, to Abraham and his descendants for ever.

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: He will bring those bad people to a bad end, & hand

the vineyard over to other tenants, who will give him

the fruits in due season.

Intercessions: led by different people in the group – ad lib

It is the very nature of our God to feel for those in distress & he longs to help them. So we bring to him now all who are finding life difficult …….. pause …… .we ask,