PRAYER FOR THIS MORNING (THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17)
Saint Robert Bellarmine
Prayer for the Morning
All who are thirsty, come to the living waters!
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
From all the wind’s wide quarters,
Come, see the feast is spread,
Of soul-sustaining waters,
Of true and living bread;
Of sorrows long-departed,
And joys beyond compare:
Come, poor and humble-hearted,
The feast of life to share!
Come, claim the promise spoken!
God’s purpose stands secure.
His fruitful word unbroken
Shall evermore endure.
All ancient bondage ended
To sin’s corrupting powers,
Forgiven, freed, befriended,
The feast of life is ours!
PSALM 42:2-4, 8-10, 12
Jesus said: “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink.” (cf. Jn 7:37)
This psalm reflects the shifting moods of down-heartedness, questioning, and confident joy that can affect the committed believer in the face of the questions and taunts of a disbelieving world. Yet the tears and torrents of discouragement have no power over the waters of life with which God’s love renews us.
Like the deer that yearns
for running streams,
so my soul is yearning
for you, my God.
My soul is thirsting for God,
the God of my life;
when can I enter and see
the face of God?
My tears have become my bread,
by night, by day,
as I hear it said all the day long:
“Where is your God?”
Deep is calling on deep,
in the roar of waters:
your torrents and all your waves
swept over me.
By day the Lord will send
his loving kindness;
by night I will sing to him,
praise the God of my life.
I will say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
oppressed by the foe?”
Why are you cast down, my soul,
why groan within me?
Hope in God; I will praise him still,
my savior and my God.
Glory to the Father….
Word of God (Isaiah 55:1)
All you who are thirsty,/ come to the water!/ You who have no money,/ come, receive grain and eat;/ Come, without paying and without cost,/ drink wine and milk!
Lord, give us always this water to drink! (cf. Jn 4:15)
CANTICLE OF ZECHARIAH
Whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst. (Jn 4:14)
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 (cf. Saint Ambrose)
Let us pray to Christ, in whom all thirst is slaked:
R/Give us living water to drink!
You are the vine:
– bear in us the fruit of life. R/
You are the rock in the desert from which the waters flow:
– cool our weary souls with the living waters of your Holy Spirit. R/
You are the living Word:
– bring life to those who grope for a sense of purpose in life. R/
(Personal intentions)
Our Father….
Ever-living God, you have given us the water of life to drink through Christ—vine, rock, Word. Make us so thirst for him that we will turn aside from all lesser thirsts, through him who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
