Saint Benedict
Prayer for the Morning
Come, ring out our joy to the Lord;
hail the rock who saves us!
Glory to the Father…. Alleluia!
HYMN
O blessed by God, Saint Benedict,
Let sadness not our hearts afflict
As we our daily tribute bring,
Your saintly life and glories sing.
Saint Benedict, to you we turn,
The secrets of God’s grace to learn,
O guide us by your wise decrees,
That God alone we seek to please.
God taught you to reject the wiles
Of sinful world which man beguiles;
Then, like a star that glitters bright,
God made of you a holy light.
In wondrous ray of God’s own light
The world appeared before your sight,
Then you the emptiness did see
Of earthly things, whate’er they be.
PSALM 95
Listen carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart. (Rule of Saint Benedict)
Saint Benedict, the father of Western monasticism, built his own life of prayer and praise on the Word of God. He directed that all those who would follow in his footsteps, whether as monks or, in more recent times, as lay oblates, begin their daily prayer with Psalm 95 so that they might be reminded to keep open the “ear of the heart.”
Come, let us sing to the Lord
and shout with joy to the Rock who saves us.
Let us approach him with praise and thanksgiving
and sing joyful songs to the Lord.
The Lord is God, the mighty God,
the great king over all the gods.
He holds in his hands the depths of the earth
and the highest mountains as well.
He made the sea; it belongs to him,
the dry land, too, for it was formed by his hands.
Come, then, let us bow down and worship,
bending the knee before the Lord, our maker.
For he is our God and we are his people,
the flock he shepherds.
Today, listen to the voice of the Lord:
Do not grow stubborn, as your fathers did in the
wilderness,
when at Meriba and Massah
they challenged me and provoked me,
Although they had seen all of my works.
Forty years I endured that generation.
I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray
and they do not know my ways.”
So I swore in my anger,
“They shall not enter into my rest.”
Glory to the Father….
Word of God (Matthew 7:24-25)
Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
My son, to my words be attentive,/
to my sayings incline your ear. (Prv 4:20)
CANTICLE OF ZECHARIAH
He gave them this command: “You shall act faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of the Lord.” (2 Chr 19:9)
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 hearts attuned to hear God’s word to us today, we pray:
R/Speak, Lord; your servants are listening!
You spoke to your people in the desert:
– let us hear your words in the silence of our prayer. R/
You sent your Son and Word into the world for our salvation:
– open our hearts to the gift of his love. R/
You teach your people through all the saints:
– instruct us in their wisdom. R/
(Personal intentions)
Our Father….
O God, you called Saint Benedict into the wilderness to dwell with you in solitude, and into the heart of a community to dwell with you in service to others. Through his intercession, lead us by your word to hear and heed your will for us this day and every day, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
