Join St. Phoebe School at 8 p.m. ET Sunday-Thursday to pray Compline: Zoom Link for Compline
Vespers for Ordinary Time from Daily Prayer for All Seasons
The sun sets on a long day, and we place our care in the hands of our loving Creator.
Opening
Holy One, lift our burdens
for your yoke is easy.
Prayer
O God, at the setting of the sun, we place our trust in you. As the night draws near, we give thanks for your presence with us. Help us entrust our lives to you with the delight and confidence of one who loves and is beloved. Through Jesus, our faithful Savior. Amen.
Praise
Canticle S
A Song of Our True Nature
Julian of Norwich
Christ revealed our frailty and our falling, *
our trespasses and our humiliations.
Christ also revealed his blessed power, *
his blessed wisdom and love.
He protects us as tenderly and as sweetly
when we are in greatest need; *
he raises us in spirit and turns everything
to glory and joy without ending.
God is the ground and the substance,
the very essence of nature; *
God is the true father and mother of natures.
We are all bound to God by nature, *
and we are all bound to God by grace.
And this grace is for all the world, *
because it is our precious mother, Christ.
For this fair nature was prepared by Christ
for the honor and nobility of all, *
and for the joy and bliss of salvation.
Scripture
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Meditation
Where have known and acted love today?
Confession
Most loving God,
we confess that we have not loved
in thought, word, or deed.
We have not loved you or our neighbors
or ourselves.
We are sorry.
Remind us that you love us unconditionally
and help us to rest in your love.
Assurance of Pardon
God does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us by the measure of our failings. As vast as the distance from one end of creation to another, God’s love for us is even greater. As far as east is from west, from greater than this distance does God remove our sin from us.
Thanks be to God.
Prayers
Gracious Lord, whenever we err,
Fill our hearts with your love.
When we wound or are wounded,
Fill our hearts with your love.
When tempted to judge,
Fill our hearts with your love.
Wherever there is hurt, loss, or despair,
Fill our world with your love.
We offer these prayers of our hearts:
Intercessions
We name our prayers and intercessions, either silently or aloud
Most holy God, the source of all good desires, all right judgments, and all just works: Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, so that our minds may be fixed on the doing of your will, and that we, being delivered from the fear of all enemies, may live in peace and quietness; through the mercies of Christ Jesus our Savior. Amen.
Make us faithful instruments of your peace.
May we fill our world with your love.
Lord’s Prayer
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.
Prayer
Holy One, lift our burdens
for your yoke is easy.
Virtual Chapel of St. Phoebe 