Even Song - Saturday after Proper 4

Saturday - Evensong Invitation

Tenor     Soprano     Response     Cantor     Bass     Alto     All    


Grace to you and peace from God our Fa-ther
and from the Lord Je-sus Christ.
Wor-ship the Lord in the beau-ty of his ho-li-ness;
let the whole earth trem-ble be-fore him.

Let my prayer be set forth in your sight as in-cense,
the lift-ing up of my hands as the eve-ning sac-ri-fice.
I will bless the Lord who gives me coun-sel;
my heart teach-es me, night af-ter night.

I have set the Lord al-ways be-fore me;
be-cause he is at my right hand, I shall not fall.
O God, make speed to save us.
O Lord, make haste to help us.

Glo-ry to the Fath-er, and to the Son,
and to the Ho-ly Spi-rit:
as it was in the be-gin-ning, is now,
and will be for ev-er. A-men.

Friday - O Gracious Light

Tenor     Soprano     Response     Cantor     Bass     Alto     All    


O gra-cious light, pure bright-ness
of the ev-erl-liv-ing Fath-er in heav-en,
O Je-sus Christ, ho-ly and bless-ed!
we sing your prais-es, O God!

Now as we come to the set-ting of the sun,
and our eyes be-hold the ves-per light,
we sing your prais-es, O God:
Fath-er, Son, and Ho-ly Spi-rit.

You are wor-thy at all times
to be praised by hap-py voic-es,
O Son of God, O Giv-er of life,
and to be glo-ri-fied through all the world.

Psalm 104

Tenor     Soprano     Response     Cantor     Bass     Alto     All    


Praise the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, you are mag-nif-i-cent.
You are robed in splen-dor and maj-es-ty.
He co-vers him-self with light as if it were a gar-ment.

He stretch-es out the skys like a tent cur-tain,
and lays the beams of his pal-ace on the rain clouds.
He makes the clouds his char-i-ot,
and trav-els a-long on the wings of the wind.

He makes the winds his mes-sen-ger,
and the flam-ing fire his at-tend-ant.
He es-tab-lished the earth on its foun-da-tion;
it will nev-er be moved.

The wa-ter-y deep cov-ered it like a gar-ment;
the wat-ers reached a-bove the moun-tains.
Your shout made the wat-ers re-treat;
at the sound of your thun-der-ous voice they hur-ried off

As the moun-tains rose up,
and the val-leys went down to the place you ap-point-ed for them.
You set up a bound-a-ry for them that they could not cross,
so that they would not cov-er the earth a-gain.

He turns springs into streams;
they flow be-tween the moun-tains.
They pro-vide wa-ter for all the an-i-mals in the field;
the wild don-keys quench their thirst.

The birds of the sky live be-side them;
they chirp a-mong the bush-es.
He wat-ers the moun-tains from the up-per rooms of his pal-ace;
the earth is full of the fruit you cause to grow.

He pro-vides grass for the cat-tle,
and crops for peo-ple to cul-ti-vate,
so they can pro-duce food from the ground,
as well as wine that makes peo-ple feel so good,

And so they can have oil to make their faces shine,
as well as food that sus-tains peo-ple's lives.
The trees of the Lord re-ceive all the rain they need,
the ce-dars of Leb-a-non which he plant-ed,

Where the birds make nests,
near the ev-er-greens in which the he-rons live.
The wild goats live in the high moun-tains;
the rock badg-ers find safe-ty in the cliff.

He made the moon to mark the months,
and the sun sets ac-cord-ing to a reg-u-lar sched-ule.
You make it dark and night comes,
dur-ing which all the beasts of the for-est prowl a-round.

The li-ons roar for prey,
seek-ing their food from God.
When the sun ris-es,
they with-draw and sleep in their dens.

Men then go out to do their work,
and la-bor a-way un-til eve-ning.
How man-y liv-ing things you have made, O Lord!
You have ex-hib-it-ed great skill in mak-ing all of them;

The earth is full of the liv-ing things you have made.
O-ver here is the deep, wide sea,
which teems with in-nu-mer-a-ble swim-ming crea-tures,
liv-ing things both small and large.

The ships trav-el there,
and o-ver here swims the whale you made to play in it.
All of your crea-tures wait for you to pro-vide them with food.
You give food to them and they re-ceive it;

You o-pen your hand and they are filled with food.
When you ig-nore them, they pan-ic.
When you take a-way their life's breath,
they die and re-turn to dust.

When you send your life giv-ing breath, they are cre-at-ed,
and you re-plen-ish the sur-face of the ground.
May the splen-dor of the Lord en-dure!
May the Lord find pleas-ure in the liv-ing things he has made!

He looks down on the earth and it shakes;
he touch-es the moun-tains and they start to smol-der.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I ex-ist!

May my thoughts be pleas-ing to him!
I will re-joice in the Lord.
May sin-ners dis-ap-pear from the earth, and the wick-ed van-ish!
Praise the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord!

Glo-ry to the Fath-er, and to the Son,
and to the Ho-ly Spi-rit:
as it was in the be-gin-ning, is now,
and will be for ev-er. A-men.


A reading from Ecclesiasticus 43:1-33


Now the famine was severe in the land. When they finished eating the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Return, buy us a little more food. ”

But Judah said to him, “The man solemnly warned us, ‘You will not see my face unless your brother is with you. ’If you send our brother with us, we’ll go down and buy food for you. But if you will not send him, we won’t go down there because the man said to us, ‘You will not see my face unless your brother is with you. ’”

Israel said, “Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man you had one more brother?”
They replied, “The man questioned us thoroughly about ourselves and our family, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ So we answered him in this way. How could we possibly know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?”

Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me and we will go immediately. Then we will live and not die – we and you and our little ones. I myself pledge security for him; you may hold me liable. If I do not bring him back to you and place him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life. But if we had not delayed, we could have traveled there and back twice by now!”

Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Take some of the best products of the land in your bags, and take a gift down to the man – a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachios and almonds. Take double the money with you; you must take back the money that was returned in the mouths of your sacks – perhaps it was an oversight. Take your brother too, and go right away to the man. May the Sovereign God grant you mercy before the man so that he may release your other brother and Benjamin! As for me, if I lose my children I lose them. ”

So the men took these gifts, and they took double the money with them, along with Benjamin. Then they hurried down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the servant who was over his household, “Bring the men to the house. Slaughter an animal and prepare it, for the men will eat with me at noon. ” The man did just as Joseph said; he brought the men into Joseph’s house.

But the men were afraid when they were brought to Joseph’s house. They said, “We are being brought in because of the money that was returned in our sacks last time. He wants to capture us, make us slaves, and take our donkeys!” So they approached the man who was in charge of Joseph’s household and spoke to him at the entrance to the house. They said, “My lord, we did indeed come down the first time to buy food. But when we came to the place where we spent the night, we opened our sacks and each of us found his money – the full amount – in the mouth of his sack. So we have returned it. We have brought additional money with us to buy food. We do not know who put the money in our sacks!”

“Everything is fine,” the man in charge of Joseph’s household told them. “Don’t be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money. ” Then he brought Simeon out to them.

The servant in charge brought the men into Joseph’s house. He gave them water, and they washed their feet. Then he gave food to their donkeys. They got their gifts ready for Joseph’s arrival at noon, for they had heard that they were to have a meal there.

When Joseph came home, they presented him with the gifts they had brought inside, and they bowed down to the ground before him. He asked them how they were doing. Then he said, “Is your aging father well, the one you spoke about? Is he still alive?” “Your servant our father is well,” they replied. “He is still alive. ” They bowed down in humility.

When Joseph looked up and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, he said, “Is this your youngest brother, whom you told me about?” Then he said, “May God be gracious to you, my son. ” Joseph hurried out, for he was overcome by affection for his brother and was at the point of tears. So he went to his room and wept there.

Then he washed his face and came out. With composure he said, “Set out the food. ” They set a place for him, a separate place for his brothers, and another for the Egyptians who were eating with him. (The Egyptians are not able to eat with Hebrews, for the Egyptians think it is disgusting to do so. ) They sat before him, arranged by order of birth, beginning with the firstborn and ending with the youngest. The men looked at each other in astonishment.

Here ends the reading.
Thanks be to God!

Saturday - First Song of Isaiah

Tenor     Soprano     Response     Cantor     Bass     Alto     All    


Sure-ly, it is God who saves me;
I will trust in him and not be a-fraid.
For the Lord is my strong-hold and my sure de-fense,
and he will be my Sav-ior.

There-fore you shall draw wa-ter with re-joic-ing
from the springs of sal-va-tion.
And on that day you shall say,
Give thanks to the Lord and call up-on his Name;

Make his deeds known a-mong the peo-ples;
see that they re-mem-ber that his Name is ex-alt-ed.
Sing the prais-es of the Lord,
for he has done great things,

And this is known in all the world.
Cry a-loud, in-hab-it-ants of Zi-on, ring out your joy,
for the great one in the midst of you
is the Ho-ly One of Is-ra-el.

Glo-ry to the Fath-er, and to the Son,
and to the Ho-ly Spi-rit:
as it was in the be-gin-ning, is now,
and will be for ev-er. A-men.


A reading from Ephesians 3:14-21



For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he will grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, that Christ will dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love,you will be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you will be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Now to him who by the power that is working within us is able to do far beyond all that we ask or think, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Here ends the reading.
Thanks be to God!

Saturday - Song of Mary

Tenor     Soprano     Response     Cantor     Bass     Alto     All    


My soul pro-claims the great-ness of the Lord,
my spi-rit re-joic-es in God my Sav-ior;
for he has looked with fa-vor on his low-ly serv-ant.
From this day all gen-er-a-tions will call me blessed:

the Al-might-y has done great things for me,
and ho-ly is his Name.
He has mer-cy on those who fear him
in eve-ry gen-er-a-tion.

He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scat-tered the proud in their con-ceit.
He has cast down the might-y from their thrones,
and has lift-ed up the low-ly.

He has filled the hun-gry with good things,
and the rich he has sent a-way emp-ty.
He has come to the help of his serv-ant Is-ra-el,
for he has re-mem-bered his prom-ise of mer-cy,

The prom-ise he made to our fath-ers,
to A-bra-ham and his chil-dren for-ev-er.
My soul pro-claims the great-ness of the Lord,
my spi-rit re-joic-es in God my Sav-ior;

Glo-ry to the Fath-er, and to the Son,
and to the Ho-ly Spi-rit:
as it was in the be-gin-ning, is now,
and will be for ev-er. A-men.

Saturday Creed

Tenor     Soprano     Response     Cantor     Bass     Alto     All    


We be-lieve in God, the Fath-er al-might-y,
cre-a-tor of heav-en and earth.
We be-lieve in Je-sus Christ,
his on-ly son, our Lord.

He was con-ceived by the pow-er of the Ho-ly Spi-rit
and born of the Vir-gin Ma-ry.
He suf-fered un-der Pon-tius Pi-late,
was cru-ci-fied, died, and was bur-ied.

He de-scend-ed to the dead.
On the third day he rose a-gain.
He a-scend-ed into heav-en,
and is seat-ed at the right hand of the Fath-er.

He will come a-gain
to judge the liv-ing and the dead.
We be-lieve in the Ho-ly Spi-rit,
the ho-ly cath-o-lic Church,

the com-mun-ion of saints,
the for-give-ness of sins,
the res-ur-rec-tion of the bod-y,
and the life ev-er-last-ing. A-men.

Saturday - Our Father

Tenor     Soprano     Response     Cantor     Bass     Alto     All    


The Lord be with you.
And al-so with you. A-men.
Our Fath-er in heav-en,
hal-low-ed be your Name.

Your king-dom come,
your will be done, on earth as in heav-en.
Give us to-day our dai-ly bread.
For-give us our sins as we for-give those who sin a-gainst us.

Save us from the time of tri-al,
and de-liv-er us from e-vil.
For the king-dom, the pow-er, and the glo-ry are yours,
now and for ev-er. A-men.

Saturday - Suffrages B

Tenor     Soprano     Response     Cantor     Bass     Alto     All    


That this eve-ning may be ho-ly, good, and peace-ful,
We en-treat you, O Lord.
That your ho-ly an-gels may lead us in paths of peace and good-will,
We en-treat you, O Lord.

That we may be par-doned and for-giv-en for our sins and of-fenses,
We en-treat you, O Lord.
That there may be peace to your Church and to the whole world,
We en-treat you, O Lord.

That we may de-part this life in your faith and fear,
and be freed from con-dem-na-tion
be-fore the great judg-ment seat of Christ,
We en-treat you, O Lord.

That we may be bound to-geth-er by your Ho-ly Spi-rit
in the com-mun-ion of Bar-na-bas and all your saints,
en-trust-ing one an-oth-er and all our life to Christ,
We en-treat you, O Lord.

Collect of the Day

Father in heaven, by your grace the virgin mother of your incarnate Son was blessed in bearing him, but still more blessed in keeping your word: Grant us who honor the exaltation of her lowliness to follow the example of her devotion to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. 

Amen.

A Collect for Saturdays

O God, the source of eternal light: Shed forth your unending day upon us who watch for you, that our lips may praise you, our lives may bless you, and our worship on the morrow give you glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

Prayer for Mission

O God and Father of all, whom the whole heavens adore: Let the whole earth also worship you, all nations obey you, all tongues confess and bless you, and men and women everywhere love you and serve you in peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

A Prayer of Saint Chrysostom

Tenor     Soprano     Response     Cantor     Bass     Alto     All     


Al-might-y God,
you have giv-en us grace at this time
with one ac-cord
to make our com-mon sup-pli-ca-tion to you;

and you have prom-ised
through your well-be-lov-ed Son
that when two or three are ga-thered to-geth-er in his Name
you will be in the midst of them:

Ful-fill now, O Lord, our de-sires and pe-ti-tions
as may be best for us;
grant-ing us in this world knowl-edge of your truth,
and in the age to come life ev-er-last-ing. A-men.

Saturday - Closing Eph 3:20

Tenor     Soprano     Response     Cantor     Bass     Alto     All     


Let us bless the Lord. Al-le-lu-ia, al-le-lu-ia
Thanks be to God. Al-le-lu-ia, al-le-lu-ia
Glo-ry to God whose pow-er, work-ing in us,
can do in-fi-nite-ly more than we can ask or im-ag-ine

Glo-ry to him from gen-er-a-tion to gen-er-a-tion in the Church,
and in Christ Je-sus for ev-er and ev-er. A-men.
Let us bless the Lord. Al-le-lu-ia, al-le-lu-ia
Thanks be to God. Al-le-lu-ia, al-le-lu-ia

Music from the Vox Barnabas Psalter, a collection of 60 Chant Scores by John Johansen, 

released to Public Domain March 30, 2020.

Scriptures from the New English Translation (NET) Bible, used with permission.