Prayer for the Morning

In the morning you hear us, O Lord;/

in the morning we offer you our prayer!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son,

and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning,

is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Alleluia!

HYMN

Heedless soul of mine, bethink thee

Ere thine hours on earth are past—

Ere thou fly to spirit-regions,

If thou reàl treasure hast.

Where will be thine endless dwelling?

Where thine everlasting home?

What thy portion, joy or mourning,

In the world beyond the tomb?

When these eyes shall lose their luster—

Fading with the failing breath,

And roll, lightless, in the conflict,

With inexorable death;

How wilt thou survive the anguish—

How sustain all earthly loss,

If thou know not the Redeemer,

If thou cling not to his cross?

PSLAM 90:1-6, 14-15

Make us know the shortness of our life/ that we may gain wisdom of heart. (Ps 90:12)

A human life may sometimes look too short to be worth much, but God, who sees the works of his hands from the perspective of enduring love, clothes even the passing wildflowers with splendor. We are only dust—but beloved dust!

O Lord, you have been our refuge

from one generation to the next.

Before the mountains were born

or the earth or the world brought forth,

you are God, without beginning or end.

You turn men back to dust

and say: “Go back, sons of men.”

To your eyes a thousand years

are like yesterday, come and gone,

no more than a watch in the night.

You sweep men away like a dream,

like grass which springs up in the morning.

In the morning it springs up and flowers:

by evening it withers and fades.

In the morning, fill us with your love;

we shall exult and rejoice all our days.

Give us joy to balance our affliction

for the years when we knew misfortune.

Glory to the Father….

Word of God (Ephesians 2:4-10)

God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved), raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.

You are precious in my eyes. (Is 43:4)

CANTICLE OF ZECHARIAH

The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. (Gn 2:7)

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

The Lord Jesus Christ took on our fragile flesh and made of it a temple for the living God. With joyful confidence, let us pray:

R/Let your favor be upon us, O Lord.

O God, we are the works of your hands:

– shape us in the image of Christ our Lord. R/

O God, we are but a moment in the world’s history:

– teach us to store up treasure in heaven by the good we do on earth. R/

O God, we fear the mortality we cannot cure:

– grant insight and faith to all those who do the work of medical research. R/

O God, we are saddened by the deaths of those we love:

– bring them into the everlasting joy of your presence. R/

(Personal intentions)

Our Father….

O God of wisdom and of love, you have made us as fragile as the flowers of the field, yet you have made us strong in the hope of life everlasting. Teach us to see this day as gift enough, that we may live it for your glory and render it back to you in praise when evening falls, 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.

Saint Faustina Kowalska; Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos

Prayer for the Morning

Come, let us go up with joy to the house of the Lord!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son,

and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning,

is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Alleluia!

HYMN

Children of the heavenly King,

As you journey, sweetly sing;

Sing your Savior’s worthy praise,

Glorious in his works and ways.

We are traveling home to God,

In the way the fathers trod;

They are happy now, and we

Soon their happiness shall see.

Lift your eyes, you sons of light,

Zion’s city is in sight:

There our endless home shall be,

There our Lord we soon shall see.

PSALM 84:2-3, 6-8, 11a, 12

Jesus instructed the disciples to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick—no food, no sack, no money in their belts. (cf. Mk 6:8)

We are a pilgrim people, journeying through the varied landscapes of life on our way to the heavenly Jerusalem. Let us travel light, unburdened by useless baggage—material or spiritual—and sing this pilgrim psalm to the God who has given us such a glorious goal in life.

How lovely is your dwelling place,

Lord, God of hosts.

My soul is longing and yearning,

is yearning for the courts of the Lord.

My heart and my soul ring out their joy

to God, the living God.

They are happy, whose strength is in you,

in whose hearts are the roads to Zion.

As they go through the Bitter Valley

they make it a place of springs,

the autumn rain covers it with blessings.

They walk with ever growing strength,

they will see the God of gods in Zion.

One day within your courts

is better than a thousand elsewhere.

For the Lord God is a rampart, a shield;

he will give us his favor and glory.

The Lord will not refuse any good

to those who walk without blame.

Glory to the Father….

Word of God (Nehemiah 9:12-13)

With a column of cloud you led [your people] by day,/ and by night with a column of fire,/ To light the way of their journey,/ the way in which they must travel./ On Mount Sinai you came down,/ you spoke with them from heaven;/ You gave them just ordinances, firm laws,/ good statutes, and commandments.

Come, follow me. (Mk 10:21)

CANTICLE OF ZECHARIAH 

When Jesus called, the disciples left their nets and followed him. (cf. Mt 4:20)

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

Let us pray with confidence to the God who calls us to travel toward the Kingdom that is to come:

R/Lead us, O Lord.

We are your people, who walk the desert road to the Promised Land:

– keep us faithful to the demands of the journey

today. R/

We are your people, called to follow Jesus, the Lord:

– make us steadfast disciples, freed from all that would hold us back. R/

We are your people, destined for the heavenly Jerusalem:

– give us strength to go on when we grow weary of the journey. R/

(Personal intentions)

Our Father….

O Lord, as we travel through this day of our life, our strength is in you; in our hearts are the roads to our eternal destination, the place where you dwell for ever with your people in joy and in peace. Sustain us as we pass through the bitter valleys of suffering; shield us as dangers threaten; let us rejoice in the springs of living water that refresh us on our way; and keep us faithful until journey’s end, through Christ our Lord. Amen.