Morning Prayer
Passiontide
Sunday, 6 April 2025
The Fifth Sunday of Lent
(Passiontide begins)
Preparation
O Lord, open our lips
All and our mouth shall proclaim your praise.
Let your ways be known upon earth,
All your saving power among the nations.
Blessed are you, Lord God of our salvation,
to you be praise and glory for ever.
As a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief
your only Son was lifted up
that he might draw the whole world to himself.
May we walk this day in the way of the cross
and always be ready to share its weight,
declaring your love for all the world.
Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
All Blessed be God for ever.
Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? ♦
Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
Which was brought upon me, ♦
which the Lord inflicted
on the day of his fierce anger.
For these things I weep;
my eyes flow with tears; ♦
for a comforter is far from me,
one to revive my courage.
Remember my affliction and my bitterness, ♦
the wormwood and the gall!
But this I call to mind, ♦
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, ♦
his mercies never come to an end;
They are new every morning; ♦
great is your faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ♦
‘therefore I will hope in him.’
The Lord is good to those who wait for him, ♦
to the soul that seeks him.
It is good that we should wait quietly ♦
for the salvation of the Lord.
For the Lord will not reject for ever; ♦
though he causes grief, he will have compassion,
According to the abundance of his steadfast love; ♦
for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.
Lamentations 1.12, 16a,b; 3.19, 21-26, 31-33
All Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now
and shall be for ever. Amen.
The night has passed, and the day lies open before us;
let us pray with one heart and mind.
Silence is kept.
As we rejoice in the gift of this new day,
so may the light of your presence, O God,
set our hearts on fire with love for you;
now and for ever.
All Amen.
The Word of God
Psalmody
Psalm 126
A Harvest of Joy
A Song of Ascents.
1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
‘The Lord has done great things for them.’
3 The Lord has done great things for us,
and we rejoiced.
4 Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like the watercourses in the Negeb.
5 May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.
6 Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
carrying their sheaves.
All Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now
and shall be for ever. Amen.
Old Testament Reading
Isaiah 43:16-21
16 Thus says the Lord,
who makes a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty waters,
17 who brings out chariot and horse,
army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
18 Do not remember the former things,
or consider the things of old.
19 I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
20 The wild animals will honour me,
the jackals and the ostriches;
for I give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
21 the people whom I formed for myself
so that they might declare my praise.
Canticle
A Song of the Lord’s Gracious Deeds,
I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord,
the praises of the Most High.
1 Who is this that comes from Edom, ♦
coming from Bozrah, his garments stained crimson?
2 Who is this in glorious apparel, ♦
marching in the greatness of his strength?
3 It is I, who announce that right has won the day, ♦
it is I,’ says the Lord, ‘for I am mighty to save.’
4 Why are your robes all red, O Lord, ♦
and your garments like theirs who tread the winepress?
5 1 have trodden the winepress alone, ♦
and from the peoples no one was with me.’
6 I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, ♦
the praises of the Most High;
7 All that God has done for us in his mercy, ♦
by his many acts of love.
8 For God said, ‘Surely, they are my people,
my children who will not deal falsely,’ ♦
and he became their Saviour in all their distress.
9 So God redeemed them by his love and pity; ♦
he lifted them up and carried them
through all the days of old.
Isaiah 63.1-3a, 7-9
All Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now
and shall be for ever. Amen.
All
I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord,
the praises of the Most High.
New Testament Reading
Philippians 3:4-14
4 even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.
If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 I want to know Christ[ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Pressing towards the Goal
12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you;
All by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
All We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
We preach Christ crucified,
the power of God and the wisdom of God.
All By your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
God forbid that I should glory,
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
All We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you;
by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
cf 1 Corinthians 1 and Galatians 6
Gospel Reading
John 12:1-8
Mary Anoints Jesus
12 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ 6 (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7 Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’
Gospel Canticle
The Benedictus (The Song of Zechariah)
Refrain:
All The word of the cross is folly
to those who are perishing,
but to those who are being saved
it is the power of God.
Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel,
who has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty Saviour, ♦
born of the house of his servant David.
Through his holy prophets God promised of old ♦
to save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all that hate us,
To show mercy to our ancestors, ♦
and to remember his holy covenant.
This was the oath God swore to our father Abraham: ♦
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
Free to worship him without fear, ♦
holy and righteous in his sight
all the days of our life.
And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, ♦
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
To give his people knowledge of salvation ♦
by the forgiveness of all their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God ♦
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, ♦
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Luke 1.68-79
All Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now
and shall be for ever. Amen.
Refrain:
All The word of the cross is folly
to those who are perishing,
but to those who are being saved
it is the power of God.
Prayers
Silence may be kept.
The Collect of the day is said
Most merciful God,
who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
delivered and saved the world:
grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross
we may triumph in the power of his victory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
All Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer is said
Standing at the foot of the cross,
let us pray with confidence as our Saviour has taught us
All
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
The Conclusion
May Christ, who bore our sins on the cross,
set us free to serve him with joy.
All Amen.
Let us bless the Lord.
All Thanks be to God.