Thursday Evening Prayer – 4th January

Thursday Evening Prayer – 4th January. Readings: Psalm 14, 14; Isaiah 33.5-24; John 4. 1-14.

Led by Felicity Scott, Liturgical Assistant at St John the Baptist Anglican Church Bulimba, QLD, Australia.

The full prayer transcript is available by going to this episode on the Podcast website.

https://dailyprayeranglicanprayerbookforaustralia.podbean.com

Welcome to Thursday Evening prayer from the Anglican ‘A prayer book for Australia’.

We proclaim the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ:

GOD in his infinite mercy, forgives all sins, and through our baptism in the name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, we are given a rebirth into new life, free from the burden of all sin. ALLELUIA

Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Blessed be God forever.

Let us Pray.

 

1

The Lord our God the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and exult and give God the glory. 

Revelation 19.6–7

 

Glory to God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit: 

as in the beginning, so now, and for ever. Amen

 

2 The Opening Canticle, A Song of Joy

Be joyful in the Lord, all the earth: 
serve the Lord with gladness 
and come before his presence with singing. 
Know that the Lord is God: 
it is he who has made us, and we are his; 
for we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 
Enter his gates with thanksgiving; 
go into his courts with praise: 
give thanks to him and praise his name. 
For the Lord is good; 
his loving-kindness is everlasting: 
and his faithfulness endures from age to age. 

Psalm 100

  

 

3 The Opening Prayer

The day is now past and the night is at hand. 

Let us pray with one heart and mind. 

  

 

Silence may be kept.

Father of lights, receive the prayer and praise we offer you as our evening sacrifice; make us a light for all the world, 
delivered by your goodness from all the works of darkness; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. 

Amen.

  

 

4 The Psalms as appointed. A pause is observed after each.

Psalm 13; 14

13

1 How long, O Lord, will you so utterly forget me:

how long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I suffer anguish in my soul,

and be so grieved in my heart day and night:

how long shall my enemy triumph over me?

3 Look upon me, O Lord my God, and answer me:

lighten my eyes, lest I sleep in death;

4 Lest my enemy say ‘I have prevailed’:

lest my foes exult at my overthrow.

5 Yet I put my trust in your unfailing love:

O let my heart rejoice in your salvation.

6 And I will make my song to the Lord:

because he deals so bountifully with me.

14

1 Fools have said in their hearts ‘There is no God’:

they have all become vile and abominable in their doings,

there is not one that does good.

2 The Lord looked down from heaven

upon the children of Adam:

to see if there were any who would act wisely

and seek after God.

3 But they have all turned out of the way,

they have all alike become corrupt:

there is none that does good, no not one.

4 Are all the evildoers devoid of understanding:

who eat up my people as they eat bread,

and do not pray to the Lord?

5 They shall be struck with terror:

for God is with the company of the righteous.

6 Though they frustrate the poor in their hopes:

surely the Lord is their refuge.

7 O that deliverance for Israel might come forth

from Zion:

when the Lord turns again the fortunes of his people,

then shall Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.

 

 

 

5 At the end of the (last) pause there may follow

God our saviour, you sent Jesus into the world of sin, and delivered him up to death for us: kindle in our hearts the same love with which he loved his own to the end; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

  

 

6 One or two Readings from the Bible as appointed.

1st Reading

Isaiah 33.5-24

5 The Lord is exalted, he dwells on high;
     he filled Zion with justice and righteousness; 
6 he will be the stability of your times,
     abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
     the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure. 
7 Listen! the valiant cry in the streets;
     the envoys of peace weep bitterly. 
8 The highways are deserted,
     travellers have left the road.
The treaty is broken,
     its oaths are despised,
     its obligation is disregarded. 
9 The land mourns and languishes;
     Lebanon is confounded and withers away;
Sharon is like a desert;
     and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves. 
10 ‘Now I will arise,’ says the Lord ,
     ‘now I will lift myself up;
     now I will be exalted. 
11 You conceive chaff, you bring forth stubble;
     your breath is a fire that will consume you. 
12 And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,
     like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.’ 
13 Hear, you who are far away, what I have done;
     and you who are near, acknowledge my might. 
14 The sinners in Zion are afraid;
     trembling has seized the godless:
‘Who among us can live with the devouring fire?
     Who among us can live with everlasting flames?’ 
15 Those who walk righteously and speak uprightly,
     who despise the gain of oppression,
who wave away a bribe instead of accepting it,
     who stop their ears from hearing of bloodshed
     and shut their eyes from looking on evil, 
16 they will live on the heights;
     their refuge will be the fortresses of rocks;
     their food will be supplied, their water assured. 
17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty;
     they will behold a land that stretches far away. 
18 Your mind will muse on the terror:
     ‘Where is the one who counted?
     Where is the one who weighed the tribute?
     Where is the one who counted the towers?’ 
19 No longer will you see the insolent people,
     the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,
     stammering in a language that you cannot understand. 
20 Look on Zion, the city of our appointed festivals!
     Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
     a quiet habitation, an immovable tent,
whose stakes will never be pulled up,
     and none of whose ropes will be broken. 
21 But there the Lord in majesty will be for us
     a place of broad rivers and streams,
where no galley with oars can go,
     nor stately ship can pass. 
22 For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our ruler,
     the Lord is our king; he will save us. 
23 Your rigging hangs loose;
     it cannot hold the mast firm in its place,
     or keep the sail spread out. 
Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;
     even the lame will fall to plundering. 
24 And no inhabitant will say, ‘I am sick’;
     the people who live there will be forgiven their iniquity.

2nd Reading

John 4.1-14

1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, ‘Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John’— 2 , although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— 3 he left Judea and started back to Galilee. 4 But he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)10 Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ 11 The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ 13 Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’

 

The readings may be followed by a period of silence for reflection, a hymn or

May your word live in us 

and bear much fruit to your glory.

 

7 The Canticle,

Christ Jesus was in the form of God:

But he did not cling to equality with God.

He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant:

And was born in our human likeness.

Being found in human form, he humbled himself:

And became obedient unto death,

Even death on a cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him:

And bestowed on him the name above every name,

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow:

In heaven and on earth and under the earth;

And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord:

to the glory of God the father.

Philippians 2.5b–11

   

8 The Prayers

Lord have mercy. 

Christ have mercy. 

Lord have mercy. 

  

9 The Lord’s Prayer and the Collect of the Day

Our Father in heaven, 
hallowed be your name, 
your kingdom come, 
your will be done, 
on earth as in heaven. 
Give us today our daily bread. 
Forgive us our sins 
as we forgive those who sin against us. 
Save us from the time of trial 
and deliver us from evil. 
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours 

now and for ever. Amen. 

  

Prayer of the Week

Almighty God,

you have shed upon us the light of your incarnate Word:

may this light, kindled in our hearts,

shine forth in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever. Amen.

 

 

10 Intercessions and Thanksgivings may be made according to local custom and need.

Let us pray

Loving God, We Pray thanks to you for all your blessings to us, for the earth which provides our needs, the natural resources, and its beauty. In our prosperity help us to be generous and compassionate to those who are in need.

God of grace; Hear our prayer.

 

Living God, we pray thanks for our mothers; for those who loved and cared for us and who taught us our faith and how to live a faithful life. We thank you for our mother church which teaches us and surrounds us with the examples of other faithful people to follow.

God of grace; Hear our prayer.

 

Merciful God, we ask for your mercy to be given to the country of Ukraine. We ask for your intervention, to impart peace as an initiative in the minds of all those at war across the world. We ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.

God of grace; Hear our prayer.

 

Loving God, we ask your blessing for those listed on the Anglican cycle of prayer:

• The Diocese of Brechin – The Scottish Episcopal Church
• The Diocese of Bathurst:
• The Parish of Toowong:
• Anglicare SQ Community Aged & Disability, West (Chinchilla)
• Canterbury College, Waterford: 
• All Parishes seeking new incumbents.
• All Anglican schools seeking new chaplains
• All Prison Chaplaincy Ministry Team

God of Grace; Hear our prayer

 

 

11 The Evening Collect

Be present merciful God, protect us through the hours of this night: that we, who are wearied by the changes and chances of this fleeting world, may rest on your eternal changelessness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

 

12

The Lord be with you.

And also with you. 

Let us praise the Lord. 

Thanks be to God. 

  

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. 

Amen.

2 Thessalonians 2.16–17