PRAYER FOR THIS MORNING (TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22)
Prayer for the Morning
God’s people shall be filled with his blessings:
let us give thanks and praise!
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
Lord, who at thy first Eucharist did pray
That all thy Church might be forever one,
Grant us at every Eucharist to say
With longing heart and soul, “thy will be done.”
O may we all one bread, one body be,
Through this blest Sacrament of unity.
For all thy Church, O Lord, we intercede;
Make thou our sad divisions soon to cease;
Draw us the nearer each to each, we plead,
By drawing all to thee, O Prince of peace;
Thus may we all one bread, one body be,
Through this blest Sacrament of unity.
We pray thee, too, for wand’rers from thy fold;
O bring them back, good Shepherd of the sheep,
Back to the faith which saints believed of old,
Back to the Church which still that faith doth keep;
Soon may we all one bread, one body be,
Through this blest Sacrament of unity.
So, Lord, at length when sacraments shall cease,
May we be one with all thy Church above,
One with thy saints in one unbroken peace,
One with thy saints in one unbounded love;
More blessèd still, in peace and love to be
One with the Trinity in Unity.
PSALM 22:24-32
Caiaphas prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God. (cf. Jn 11:51-52)
The unity for which Christ lived and died is not an abstract ideal. It is the result of hard work: suspending judgment, choosing others before self, forgiving, seeking reconciliation rather than nursing hurt pride. In other words, it requires that we die to self in Christ. The fruit? The blessing of God’s peace!
“You who fear the Lord, give him praise;
all sons of Jacob, give him glory.
Revere him, Israel’s sons.
For he has never despised
nor scorned the poverty of the poor.
From him he has not hidden his face,
but he heard the poor man when he cried.”
You are my praise in the great assembly.
My vows I will pay before those who fear him.
The poor shall eat and shall have their fill.
They shall praise the Lord, those who seek him.
May their hearts live for ever and ever!
All the earth shall remember and return to the Lord,
all families of the nations worship before him
for the kingdom is the Lord’s; he is ruler of the nations.
They shall worship him, all the mighty of the earth;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust.
And my soul shall live for him, my children serve him.
They shall tell of the Lord to generations yet to come,
declare his faithfulness to peoples yet unborn:
“These things the Lord has done.”
Glory to the Father….
Word of God (Ephesians 2:13-18)
In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have become near by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace, he who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh, abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims, that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile both with God, in one body, through the cross, putting that enmity to death by it. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
May all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. (cf. Jn 17:21)
CANTICLE OF ZECHARIAH
Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are. (Jn 17:11)
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 according to Christ’s will:
R/Make us one in mind and heart.
For all the Church:
– in the midst of difference and diversity: R/
For all who believe in your name:
– in the midst of our divisions: R/
For all who live in opposition to one another:
– in the midst of our conflicts and misunderstandings: R/
(Personal intentions)
Our Father….
O God, you are one God in three Persons, and you have made us in your image. Bring us into the unity for which Christ lived and prayed and died, that we may give glory to your name through him, Christ our Lord. Amen.
