PRAYER FOR THIS MORNING (TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1)

Prayer for the Morning

The Lord has made known his salvation:

come, let us adore!

Glory to the Father…. Alleluia!

HYMN

Behold a broken world, we pray,

Where want and war increase,

And grant us, Lord, in this our day,

The ancient dream of peace:

A dream of swords to sickles bent,

Of spears to scythe and spade,

The weapons of our warfare spent,

A world of peace remade.

O Prince of peace, who died to save,

A lost world to redeem,

And rose in triumph from the grave,

Behold our waking dream.

Bring, Lord, your better world to birth,

Your kingdom, love’s domain;

Where peace with God, and peace on earth,

And peace eternal reign.

PSALM 98

He who obeys me dwells in security,/ in peace, without fear of harm. (Prv 1:33)

What is so new about the promised “mountain of the Lord” is not that the wolf and the lamb are both there, but that the wolf remains a wolf and the lamb a lamb, and yet they dwell together without harm or hurt in God’s Kingdom. Under God’s rule, conversion and obedience do not mean the loss of identity but the discovery of our true identity as one in Christ.

Sing a new song to the Lord

for he has worked wonders.

His right hand and his holy arm

have brought salvation.

The Lord has made known his salvation;

has shown his justice to the nations.

He has remembered his truth and love

for the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen

the salvation of our God.

Shout to the Lord, all the earth,

ring out your joy.

Sing psalms to the Lord with the harp

with the sound of music.

With trumpets and the sound of the horn

acclaim the King, the Lord.

Let the sea and all within it thunder;

the world, and all its peoples.

Let the rivers clap their hands

and the hills ring out their joy.

Rejoice at the presence of the Lord,

for he comes to rule the earth.

He will rule the world with justice

and the peoples with fairness.

Glory to the Father….

Word of God (Isaiah 65:25)

The wolf and the lamb shall graze alike,/ and the lion shall eat hay like the ox/ [but the serpent’s food shall be dust]./ None shall hurt or destroy/ on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

May the Lord bless you, holy mountain,

abode of justice! (Jer 31:23)

CANTICLE OF ZECHARIAH

The Lord shall shelter them with his right hand,/ and protect them with his arm. (cf. Wis 5:16)

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

As we await with joy the One who will rule the world with justice, let us pray:

R/Come and rule over us, Prince of Peace!

You bring the spirit of wisdom and understanding:

– build bridges of understanding among those who ­differ. R/

You bring the spirit of counsel and strength:

– guide the strong to assist the weak. R/

You bring the spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord:

– enlighten us with true knowledge of you during this holy season. R/

(Personal intentions)

Our Father….

God our Father, you have promised us peace in the kingdom won for us by your Son. Carve in our hearts a place of peace where all may be invited to dwell in your love, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.