Even Song - Wednesday after Proper 4

Wednesday - 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.

Wednesday - 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 49

Tenor     Soprano     Response     Cantor     Bass     Alto     All     



Lis-ten to this, all you na-tions!
Pay at-ten-tion, all you in-hab-it-ants of the world!
Pay at-ten-tion, all you peo-ple, both rich and poor!
I will de-clare a wise say-ing;

I will share my pro-found thought.
I will learn a song that im-parts wis-dom;
I will then sing my in-sight-ful song to the ac-com-pa-ni-ment of a harp.
Why should I be a-fraid in times of trou-ble

When the sin-ful deeds of de-cep-tive men threat-en to o-ver-whelm me?
They trust in their wealth and boast in their great rich-es.
Cer-tain-ly a man can-not res-cue his broth-er;
he can-not pay God an ad-e-quate ran-som price

The ran-som price for a hu-man life is too high,
and peo-ple go to their fi-nal des-ti-ny,
so that he might con-tin-ue to live for-ev-er
and not ex-pe-ri-ence death.

Sure-ly one sees that e-ven wise peo-ple die;
fools and spi-rit-ual-ly in-sen-si-tive peo-ple all pass a-way
and leave their wealth to oth-ers.
Their grave be-comes their per-ma-nent res-i-dence,

Their e-ter-nal dwell-ing place.
They name their lands af-ter them-selves,
but, de-spite their wealth, peo-ple do not last,
they are like an-i-mals that per-ish.

This is the des-ti-ny of fool,
and of those who ap-prove of their phi-los-o-phy.
They will trav-el to She-ol like sheep,
with death as their shep-herd.

The god-ly will rule o-ver them
when the day of vin-di-ca-tion dawns;
She-ol will con-sume their bod-ies
and they will no long-er live in im-pres-sive hous-es.

But God will res-cue my life from the pow-er of She-ol;
cer-tain-ly he will pull me to safe-ty.
Do not be a-fraid when a man be-comes rich
and his wealth mul-ti-plies!

For he will take noth-ing with him when he dies;
his wealth will not fol-low him down into the grave.
He pro-nounc-es this bles-sing on him-self while he is a-live:
May men praise you, for you have done well!

But he will join his an-ces-tors;
they will nev-er a-gain see the light of day.
Wealth-y peo-ple do not un-der-stand;
they are like an-i-mals that per-ish.

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.

Psalm 53

Tenor     Soprano     Response     Cantor     Bass     Alto     All     


Fools say to them-selves, There is no God.
They sin and com-mit e-vil deeds;
none of them does what is right.
God looks down from heav-en at the hu-man race,

to see if there is an-y-one
who is wise and seeks God.
Eve-ry-one re-jects God;
they are all mor-al-ly cor-rupt.

None of them does what is right, not e-ven one!
All those who be-have wick-ed-ly do not un-der-stand
those who de-vour my peo-ple
as if they were eat-ing bread,

They do not call out to God. They are ab-so-lute-ly ter-ri-fied,
e-ven by things that do not nor-mal-ly cause fear.
For God an-ni-hi-lates those who at-tack you.
You are a-ble to hu-mil-i-ate them

be-cause God has re-ject-ed them.
I wish the de-liv-er-ance of Is-ra-el would come from Zi-on!
When God re-stores the well-be-ing of his peo-ple,
may Ja-cob re-joice, may Is-ra-el be hap-py!

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 Matthew 14:1-12


At that time Herod the tetrarch heard reports about Jesus, and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead! And because of this, miraculous powers are at work in him. ” For Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because John had repeatedly told him, “It is not lawful for you to have her. ” Although Herod wanted to kill John, he feared the crowd because they accepted John as a prophet. 

But on Herod’s birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod, so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. Instructed by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter. ” Although it grieved the king, because of his oath and the dinner guests he commanded it to be given. So he sent and had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. Then John’s disciples came and took the body and buried it and went and told Jesus.

Here ends the reading.
Thanks be to God!

Wednesday - 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.

Wednesday 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.

Wednesday - 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.

Wednesday - 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

O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. 

Amen.

A Collect for Protection

O God, the life of all who live, the light of the faithful, the strength of those who labor, and the repose of the dead: We thank you for the blessings of the day that is past, and humbly ask for your protection through the coming night. Bring us in safety to the morning hours; through him who died and rose again for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. 

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.

Wednesday - Closing Blessings

Tenor     Soprano     Response     Cantor     Bass     Alto     All     


The grace of our Lord Je-sus Christ,
and the love of God our Fath-er,
and the fel-low-ship of the Ho-ly Spi-rit,
be with us all ev-er-more. A-men.

Thanks be to God!
May the God of hope fill us
with all joy and peace in be-liev-ing
through the pow-er of the Ho-ly Spi-rit. A-men.

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.