HOLY THURSDAY – MORNING PRAYER

Leader: O God, come to our aid All: O Lord make haste to help us.

Leader: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit …

PSALMS

Antiphon 1: Look, Lord, and answer quickly, for I am in distress. Psalm 79 (80)

O Shepherd of Israel hear us,

you who lead Joseph’s flock,

shine forth from your cherubim throne

upon Ephraim, Benjamin, Manasseh.

O Lord, rouse up your might,

O Lord, come to our help.

God of hosts, bring us back;

Let your face shine on us and we shall be saved.

Lord God of hosts, how long

Will you frown on your people’s plea?

You have fed them with tears for their bread,

An abundance of tears for their drink.

You have made us the taunt of our neighbours,

Our enemies laugh us to scorn.

God of hosts, bring us back;

Let your face shine on us and we shall be saved.

You brought a vine out of Egypt,

to plant it you drove out the nations.

Before it you cleared the ground;

it took root and spread through the land.

The mountains were covered with its shadow,

the cedars of God with its boughs.

It stretched out its branches to the sea,

to the great river it stretched out its shoots.

Then why have you broken down its walls?

It is plucked by all who pass by.

It is ravaged by the boar of the forest,

Devoured by the beasts of the field.

God of hosts turn again we implore,

look down from heaven and see.

Visit this vine and protect it,

the vine your right hand has planted.

May your hand be on the one you have chosen,

the one you have given your strength.

And we shall never forsake you again;

give us life that we may call upon your name.

God of hosts, bring us back;

Let your face shine on us and we shall be saved.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son ….

Antiphon 1: Look, Lord, and answer quickly, for I am in distress.

Antiphon 2: See now that God is my salvation; I have trust and no fear. Canticle: Isaiah 12:1-6

I thank you Lord, you were angry with me

But your anger has passed and you give me comfort.

Truly, God is my salvation,

I trust, I shall not fear.

For the Lord is my strength, my song,

He is my saviour.

With joy you will draw water

From the wells of salvation.

Give thanks to the Lord, give praise to his name!

Make his mighty deeds known to the peoples.

Declare the greatness of his name,

Sing a psalm to the Lord!

For he has done glorious deeds;

Make them known to all the earth.

People of Sion, sing and shout for joy

For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son …..

Antiphon 2: See now that God is my salvation; I have trust and no fear.

Antiphon 3: The Lord fed us with finest wheat, he filled us with honey from the rock.

Psalm 80 (81)

Ring out your joy to God our strength,

Shout in triumph to the God of Jacob.

Raise a song and sound the timbrel,

The sweet-sounding harp and the lute,

Blow the trumpet at the new moon,

When the moon is full, on our feast.

For this is Israel’s 1aw,

a command of the God of Jacob.

He imposed it as a ru1e on Joseph,

when he went out against the land of Egypt.

A voice I did not know said to me:

‘I freed your shoulder from the burden;

your hands were freed from the load.

You called in distress and I saved you.

I answered, concealed in the storm cloud,

at the waters of Meribah I tested you.

Listen, my people to my warning,

O Israel, if only you would heed !

Let there be no foreign god among you,

no worship of an alien god.

I am the Lord your God,

who brought you from the land of Egypt.

Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.

But my people did not heed my voice

and Israel would not obey,

so I left them in their stubbornness of heart

to follow their own designs.

O that my people would heed me,

that Israel would wa1k in my ways !

At once I would subdue their foes,

turn my hind against their enemies.

The Lord’s enemies would cringe at their feet

and their subjection would last for ever.

But Israel I would feed with finest wheat

And fill them with honey from the rock.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son …..

Antiphon 3: The Lord fed us with finest wheat, he filled us with honey from the rock.

Leader: SCRIPTURE READING Hebrews 2: 9-10.

“We see in Jesus one who is now crowned with glory and splendour because he submitted to death; by God’s grace he had to experience death for us all. As it was his purpose to bring a great many of his children into glory, it was appropriate that God, for whom everything exists and through whom everything exists, should make perfect through suffering the leader who would take them to their salvation.”

Leader: You have redeemed us, Lord, by your blood.

All: You have redeemed us, Lord, by your blood.

Leader: From every tribe and tongue and people and nation

All: You have redeemed us, Lord, by your blood.

Leader: Glory be to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

All: You have redeemed us, Lord, by your blood.

THE BENEDICTUS

Antiphon: I have longed to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel;

he has visited his people and redeemed them.

He has raised up for us a mighty Saviour

in the house of David his servant,

as he promised by the lips of holy ones,

those who were his prophets from of old.

A Saviour who would free us from our foes,

from the hands of all who hate us.

So his love for our ancestors is fulfilled

and his holy covenant remembered.

He swore to Abraham our father to grant us

that free from fear and saved from the hands of our foes

we might serve him in holiness and justice

all the days of our life in his presence.

As for you, little child,

you shall be called a prophet of God the Most High.

You shall go ahead of the Lord

to prepare his ways before him

to make known to his people their salvation

through forgiveness of all their sins,

the loving-kindness of the heart of our God

who visits us like the dawn from on high.

He will give light to those in darkness,

those who dwell in the shadow of death,

and guide us in the way of peace.

Glory be to the Father ….

Antiphon: I have longed to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

INTERCESSIONS

Response is: Lord have mercy on us.

Leader: Let us humbly pray to Christ, the eternal Priest, whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit to proclaim release for captives