Wednesday Evening Prayer – 6th December 2023

Wednesday Evening – 6^th December 2023

Wednesday Evening Prayer – 6^th December 2023 Readings: Psalm 88; Isaiah 2. 19-3-12; Mark 5. 1-20.

Led by Felicity Scott, Liturgical Assistant at St John the Baptist Anglican Church Bulimba, QLD, Australia.

The full prayer transcript is available by going to this episode on the Podcast website.

https://dailyprayeranglicanprayerbookforaustralia.podbean.com

Welcome to Evening prayer from the Anglican ‘A prayer book for Australia’.

We proclaim the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ:

GOD in his infinite mercy, forgives all sins, and through our baptism in the name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, we are given a rebirth into new life, free from the burden of all sin. ALLELUIA

Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Blessed be God forever.

Let us Pray.

 

1

The glory of the Lord shall be revealed;

and all people shall see it together. 

Isaiah 40.5

Glory to God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit: 

as in the beginning, so now, and for ever. Amen. 

  

 

2 The Opening Canticle, A Song of Praise

God be gracious to us and bless us: 
and make your face to shine upon us, 
That your way may be known upon earth: 
your salvation among all nations. 
Let the peoples praise you, O God: 
let all the peoples praise you. 
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy: 
for you judge the peoples with equity 
and govern the nations upon earth. 
Let the peoples praise you, O God: 
let all the peoples praise you. 
Then the earth will bring forth its increase: 
and God, our own God, will bless us. 
You, O God, will bless us: 
and all the ends of the earth will fear you. 

Psalm 67

  

 

3 The Opening Prayer

The day is now past and the night is at hand. 

Let us pray with one heart and mind. 

  

 

Silence may be kept.

Father of lights, receive the prayer and praise we offer you as our evening sacrifice; make us a light for all the world, 
delivered by your goodness from all the works of darkness; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. 

Amen.

  

 

4 The Psalms as appointed. A pause is observed after each.

PSALM 88

¹ O Lord my God, I call for help by day:

and by night also I cry out before you.

² Let my prayer come into your presence:

and turn your ear to my loud crying.

³ For my soul is filled with trouble:

and my life has come even to the brink of the grave.

⁴ I am reckoned among those that go down to the Pit:

I am as one that has no help.

⁵ I lie among the dead,

like the slain that sleep in the grave:

whom you remember no more,

who are cut off from your power.

⁶ You have laid me in the lowest Pit:

in darkness and in the watery depths.

⁷ Your wrath lies heavy upon me:

and all your waves are brought against me.

⁸ You have put my friends far from me:

and made me to be abhorred by them.

⁹ I am so fast in prison I cannot get free:

my eyes fail because of my affliction.

¹⁰ Lord, I call to you every day:

I stretch out my hands toward you.

¹¹ Will you work wonders for the dead:

or will the shades rise up again to praise you?

¹² Shall your love be declared in the grave:

or your faithfulness in the place of destruction?

¹³ Will your wonders be made known in the dark:

or your righteousness in the land

where all things are forgotten?

¹⁴ But to you, Lord, will I cry:

early in the morning my prayer shall come before you.

¹⁵ O Lord, why have you rejected me:

why do you hide your face from me?

¹⁶ I have been afflicted and wearied from my youth upward:

I am tossed high and low, I cease to be.

¹⁷ Your fierce anger has overwhelmed me:

and your terrors have put me to silence.

¹⁸ They surround me like a flood all the day long:

they close upon me from every side.

¹⁹ Friend and acquaintance you have put far from me:

and kept my companions from my sight.

5 At the end of the (last) pause there may follow

God of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: graft in our hearts the love of your name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of your great mercy keep us in the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

  

 

6 One or two Readings from the Bible as appointed.

 

1st Reading

Isaiah 2.19–3.12

¹⁹ Enter the caves of the rocks
     and the holes of the ground,
from the terror of the Lord ,
     and from the glory of his majesty,
     when he rises to terrify the earth. 
²⁰ On that day people will throw away
     to the moles and to the bats
their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
     which they made for themselves to worship, 
²¹ to enter the caverns of the rocks
     and the clefts in the crags,
from the terror of the Lord ,
     and from the glory of his majesty,
     when he rises to terrify the earth. 
²² Turn away from mortals,
     who have only breath in their nostrils,
     for of what account are they? 
¹ For now the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts,
     is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah
support and staff—
     all support of bread,
     and all support of water— 
² warrior and soldier,
     judge and prophet,
     diviner and elder, 
³ captain of fifty
     and dignitary,
counsellor and skilful magician
     and expert enchanter. 
⁴ And I will make boys their princes,
     and babes shall rule over them. 
⁵ The people will be oppressed,
     everyone by another
     and everyone by a neighbour;
the youth will be insolent to the elder,
     and the base to the honourable. 
⁶ Someone will even seize a relative,
     a member of the clan, saying,
‘You have a cloak;
     you shall be our leader,
and this heap of ruins
     shall be under your rule.’ 
⁷ But the other will cry out on that day, saying,
‘I will not be a healer;
     in my house there is neither bread nor cloak;
you shall not make me
     leader of the people.’ 
⁸ For Jerusalem has stumbled
     and Judah has fallen,
because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord ,
     defying his glorious presence. 
⁹ The look on their faces bears witness against them;
     they proclaim their sin like Sodom,
     they do not hide it.
Woe to them!
     For they have brought evil on themselves. 
¹⁰ Tell the innocent how fortunate they are,
     for they shall eat the fruit of their labours. 
¹¹ Woe to the guilty! How unfortunate they are,
     for what their hands have done shall be done to them. 
¹² My people—children are their oppressors,
     and women rule over them.
O my people, your leaders mislead you,
     and confuse the course of your paths. 

2nd Reading

Mark 5.1–20

¹ They came to the other side of the lake, to the country of the Gerasenes. ² And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. ³ He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; ⁴ for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. ⁶ When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; ⁷ and he shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.’ ⁸ For he had said to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!’ ⁹ Then Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion; for we are many.’ ¹⁰ He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country.¹¹ Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; ¹² and the unclean spirits begged him, ‘Send us into the swine; let us enter them.’ ¹³ So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned in the lake. ¹⁴ The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. ¹⁵ They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. ¹⁶ Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. ¹⁷ Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighbourhood. ¹⁸ As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. ¹⁹ But Jesus refused, and said to him, ‘Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.’ ²⁰ And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

 

The readings may be followed by a period of silence for reflection, a hymn or

May your word live in us 

and bear much fruit to your glory.

 

7 The Canticle, The Song of Mary (Magnificat)

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord: 
my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, 
Who has looked with favour on his lowly servant: 
from this day all generations will call me blessed; 
The Almighty has done great things for me: 
and holy is his name. 
God has mercy on those who fear him: 
from generation to generation. 
The Lord has shown strength with his arm: 
and scattered the proud in their conceit, 
Casting down the mighty from their thrones: 
and lifting up the lowly. 
God has filled the hungry with good things: 
and sent the rich away empty. 
He has come to the aid of his servant Israel: 
to remember the promise of mercy, 
The promise made to our forebears: 
to Abraham and his children for ever. 

Luke 1.47–55

   

8 The Prayers

Lord have mercy. 

Christ have mercy. 

Lord have mercy. 

  

9 The Lord’s Prayer and the Collect of the Day

Our Father in heaven, 
hallowed be your name, 
your kingdom come, 
your will be done, 
on earth as in heaven. 
Give us today our daily bread. 
Forgive us our sins 
as we forgive those who sin against us. 
Save us from the time of trial 
and deliver us from evil. 
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours 

now and for ever. Amen. 

  

Nicholas of Myra, bishop and philanthropist (d. c. 342)

[A Bishop]
O God, our heavenly Father,
 who raised up your faithful servant N
 to be a bishop in your Church
 and to feed your flock:
 give abundantly to all bishops and other pastors
 the gifts of your Holy Spirit,
 so that they may minister in your household
 as true servants of Christ
 and stewards of your holy mysteries;
 through Jesus Christ our Lord,
 who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
 one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Prayer of the Week

Almighty God,

give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness

and put on the armour of light,

now in the time of this mortal life

in which your Son 

Jesus Christ came among us in great humility,

that on the last day,

when he shall come again in his glorious majesty

to judge the living and the dead,

we may rise to the life immortal;

through him who lives and reigns with you

and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever. Amen.

 

 

10 Intercessions and Thanksgivings may be made according to local custom and need.

Let us pray
Almighty God, we thank you for your church and its place in our world and ask that you bless the whole church. Bless all clergy, and volunteers, with modern thinking and progressive plans to bring a safe and inclusive church into being throughout our country.

God of Grace.      Hear our Prayer

 

Generous God, we ask that you show generosity by remembering the homeless, the destitute, the sick, the aged, and all who have none to care for them. Heal those who are broken in body or spirit and turn their sorrow into joy. Send people to minister to their needs in generous ways.

God of Grace Hear our prayer

 

God, we ask your blessing for those listed on the Anglican cycle of prayer:

• The Diocese of Baringo – The Anglican Church of Kenya
• The Diocese of Bendigo: †Matt Brain; Clergy and People
• The Parish of North Pine: David Ruthven, Bruce Worthington, Dylan Blocksidge
• Brisbane Correctional Centre: Kevin Bell
• Fraser Coast Anglican College, Hervey Bay: Principal – Joe Wright; Chaplain – Jeff Jarvis; Chair of College Council – Kirsti Kee; members of College Council; staff & students
• All Parishes seeking new incumbents.
• All Anglican schools seeking new chaplains.
• All Prison ministry chaplaincy teams

God of Grace; Hear our prayer

 

 

11 The Evening Collect

Lighten our darkness, Lord, we pray: 

and in your great mercy defend us 

from all perils and dangers of this night; 

for the love of your only Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. 

Amen.

 

12

The Lord be with you.

And also with you. 

Let us praise the Lord. 

Thanks be to God. 

  

May our Lord Jesus Christ, and God our Father, comfort our hearts and establish them in every good work and word. 

Amen.

2 Thessalonians 2.16–17