26th Vespers

Grace

Dear God,
thank you for all that is good,
for our creation and for our humanity,
for the gifts of life and of one another,
for your love which is unbounded and eternal.
for the food before us,
the family and friends beside us
and the love between us.
Amen.

Psalm 139

Lord you have searched me out and known me:
you know when I sit down and when I stand up,
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You mark my path, and the places where I rest:
you are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue:
You Lord know it altogether.
You guard me from behind and before:
and cover me with your hand.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me:
so high that I cannot attain to it.
Where shall I go from your spirit:
or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I climb up to heaven you are there:
if I make my bed in the grave you are there also.
If I take the wings of the dawn:
and alight at the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand will lead me:
and your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say 'Let the darkness cover me;
and my day be turned to night,'
the darkness is no darkness with you,
but the night is as clear as the day:
for darkness and light to you are both alike.
It was you that created my inward parts:
and put them together in my mother's womb.

I will praise you, for you are awesome and wonderful:
marvellous are your works, and you know me through and through.
My body was not hidden from you:
when I was being fashioned in secret,
and woven together in the depths of the earth.
You eyes looked at my body:
while it was as yet imperfectly formed.
In your book all the days of my life were written:
while as yet there was not one of them.
How deep are your thoughts O God:
and how great is the sum of them.
If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand:
to finish the count, my life-span must needs be equal to yours.
O that you would kill the wicked, O God,
and the bloodthirsty would depart from me -
those who speak of you maliciously,
and lift themselves up against you for evil!
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with perfect hatred:
I count them my enemies.
Examine me O God and know my heart:
test me, and discover my thoughts.
Watch closely, lest I follow a path of error:
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Collect

Eternal Spirit, living God,
in whom we live and move and have our being,
all that we are, have been, and shall be is known to you,
to the very secret of our hearts
and all that rises to trouble us.
Living flame burn into us,
cleansing wind, blow through us,
fountain of water, well up within us,
that we may love and praise in deed and in truth.
Amen.

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Grace

Psalm 139

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