PRAYER FOR THIS MORNING (FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27)

Prayer for the Morning

Jesus Christ leads us from death to life:

let us give thanks and praise!

Glory to the Father…. Alleluia!

HYMN

May flights of angels lead you on your way

To paradise, and heav’n’s eternal day!

May martyrs greet you after death’s dark night,

And bid you enter into Zion’s light!

May choirs of angels sing you to your rest

With once poor Laz’rus, now for ever blest!

PSALM 116:10-19

If he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. (2 Mc 12:44-45)

The Lord greatly desires to bring the souls in purgatory into full union with him in heaven, but in his wisdom has tied the communion of saints together so that we on earth must pray for the Church Suffering in purgatory. As we serve our brothers and sisters here on earth, let us never forget to pray for our brothers and sisters awaiting heaven.

I trusted, even when I said:

“I am sorely afflicted,”

and when I said in my alarm:

“No man can be trusted.”

How can I repay the Lord

for his goodness to me?

The cup of salvation I will raise;

I will call on the Lord’s name.

My vows to the Lord I will fulfill

before all his people.

O precious in the eyes of the Lord

is the death of his faithful.

Your servant, Lord, your servant am I;

you have loosened my bonds.

A thanksgiving sacrifice I make:

I will call on the Lord’s name.

My vows to the Lord I will fulfill

before all his people,

in the courts of the house of the Lord,

in your midst, O Jerusalem.

Glory to the Father….

Word of God (Job 19:25-27)

Iknow that my Vindicator lives,/ and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust;/ Whom I myself shall see:/ my own eyes, not another’s, shall behold him,/ And from my flesh I shall see God;/ my inmost being is consumed with longing.

If we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him
in the resurrection. (Rom 6:5)

CANTICLE OF ZECHARIAH

God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death, because it was impossible for him to be held by it. (Acts 2:24)

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;

he has come to his people and set them free.

He has raised up for us a mighty savior,

born of the house of his servant David.

Through his holy prophets he promised of old

that he would save us from our enemies,

from the hands of all who hate us.

He promised to show mercy to our fathers

and to remember his holy covenant.

This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham:

to set us free from the hands of our enemies,

free to worship him without fear,

holy and righteous in his sight

all the days of our life.

You, my child, shall be called the prophet

of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,

to give his people knowledge of salvation

by the forgiveness of their sins.

In the tender compassion of our God

the dawn from on high shall break upon us,

to shine on those who dwell in darkness

and the shadow of death,

and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Glory to the Father…

INTERCESSIONS

With confidence in the God who made us and who paved a way for our salvation, we pray:

R/Lord, you are our life and resurrection.

God of life eternal, we place all our hope in you:

– hear our prayers in our last hours, and bring us to heaven with you. R/

Source of all joy, consolation in sorrow:

– receive the souls of the faithful departed into your everlasting rest. R/

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,

– and may perpetual light shine upon them. R/

(Personal intentions)

Our Father….

Father of all, who are perfectly just and perfectly merciful, remember your covenant with your children, that those souls who linger in purgatory for their purification may be swiftly drawn to perfect happiness with the saints in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.