Evening Prayer, Rite II (Thursday, May 11th, 2023)

EP May 11 2023

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Leader: I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel; my heart teaches me, night after night. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not fall. Psalm 16:7,8

THE CONFESSION OF SIN

Leader: Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor.

Silence may be kept.

All: Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.

Leader: Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life.

All: Amen.

THE INVITATORY AND PSALTER

Leader: O God, make speed to save us.

All: O Lord, make haste to help us.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Alleluia.

Please recite together.

O GRACIOUS LIGHT: PHOS HILARON

O gracious light, pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven, O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed! Now as we come to the setting of the sun, and our eyes behold the vesper light, we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices, O Son of God, O Giver of Life, and to be glorified through all the worlds.

PSALM 74 Ut quid, Deus?

1 O God, why have you utterly cast us off? *

why is your wrath so hot against the sheep of your pasture?

2 Remember your congregation that you purchased long ago, *

the tribe you redeemed to be your inheritance,

and Mount Zion where you dwell.

3 Turn your steps toward the endless ruins; *

the enemy has laid waste everything in your sanctuary.

4 Your adversaries roared in your holy place; *

they set up their banners as tokens of victory.

5 They were like men coming up with axes to a grove of trees; *

they broke down all your carved work with hatchets

and hammers.

6 They set fire to your holy place; *

they defiled the dwelling-place of your Name

and razed it to the ground.

7 They said to themselves, "Let us destroy them altogether." *

They burned down all the meeting-places of God in the land.

8 There are no signs for us to see;

there is no prophet left; *

there is not one among us who knows how long.

9 How long, O God, will the adversary scoff? *

will the enemy blaspheme your Name for ever?

10 Why do you draw back your hand? *

why is your right hand hidden in your bosom?

11 Yet God is my King from ancient times, *

victorious in the midst of the earth.

12 You divided the sea by your might *

and shattered the heads of the dragons upon the waters;

13 You crushed the heads of Leviathan *

and gave him to the people of the desert for food.

14 You split open spring and torrent; *

you dried up ever-flowing rivers.

15 Yours is the day, yours also the night; *

you established the moon and the sun.

16 You fixed all the boundaries of the earth; *

you made both summer and winter.

17 Remember, O Lord, how the enemy scoffed, *

how a foolish people despised your Name.

18 Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts; *

never forget the lives of your poor.

19 Look upon your covenant; *

the dark places of the earth are haunts of violence.

20 Let not the oppressed turn away ashamed; *

let the poor and needy praise your Name.

21 Arise, O God, maintain your cause; *

remember how fools revile you all day long.

22 Forget not the clamor of your adversaries, *

the unending tumult of those who rise up against you.

THE FIRST LESSON: A READING FROM THE BOOK OF WISDOM 14:27-15:3

27 For the worship of idols not to be named

is the beginning and cause and end of every evil.

28 For their worshippers* either rave in exultation,

or prophesy lies, or live unrighteously, or readily commit perjury;

29 for because they trust in lifeless idols

they swear wicked oaths and expect to suffer no harm.

30 But just penalties will overtake them on two counts:

because they thought wrongly about God in devoting themselves to idols,

and because in deceit they swore unrighteously through contempt for holiness.

31 For it is not the power of the things by which people swear,*

but the just penalty for those who sin,

that always pursues the transgression of the unrighteous.

15But you, our God, are kind and true,

patient, and ruling all things* in mercy.

2 For even if we sin we are yours, knowing your power;

but we will not sin, because we know that you acknowledge us as yours.

3 For to know you is complete righteousness,

and to know your power is the root of immortality.

Leader: The Word of the Lord.

All: Thanks be to God.

Please recite together

THE SONG OF SIMEON: NUNC DIMITTIS

Lord, you now have set your servant free *

to go in peace as you have promised;

For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, *

whom you have prepared for all the world to see:

A Light to enlighten the nations, *

and the glory of your people Israel.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

THE SECOND LESSON: A READING FROM THE BOOK OF ROMANS 14:1-12

14Welcome those who are weak in faith,* but not for the purpose of quarrelling over opinions. 2Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. 3Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgement on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. 4Who are you to pass judgement on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord* is able to make them stand.

5 Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. 6Those who observe the day, observe it in honour of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honour of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honour of the Lord and give thanks to God.

7 We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. 8If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

10 Why do you pass judgement on your brother or sister?* Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister?* For we will all stand before the judgement seat of God.* 11For it is written,

‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,

and every tongue shall give praise to* God.’

12So then, each of us will be accountable to God.*

Leader: The Word of the Lord.

All: Thanks be to God.

A READING FROM THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 8:26-39

26 Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes,* which is opposite Galilee. 27As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn* no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me’— 29for Jesus* had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 30Jesus then asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He said, ‘Legion’; for many demons had entered him. 31They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

32 Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons* begged Jesus* to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

34 When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. 35Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 36Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. 37Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes* asked Jesus* to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus* sent him away, saying, 39‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

Leader: The Word of the Lord.

All: Thanks be to God.

** REFLECTIONS ON THE READINGS **

Please recite together.

THE APOSTLES' CREED

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord.

He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended to the dead.

On the third day he rose again.

He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting. Amen.