Morning Prayers – LAUDS

Invitatory Prayers here

Lord, you have been for us

A dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth,

Or ever you had formed the earth and the world,

From everlasting to everlasting you are God.

You turn us back to dust,

And say, "Turn back, you mortals."

For a thousand years in your sight

Are like yesterday when it is past,

Or like a watch in the night.

You sweep them away; they are like a dream,

Like grass that is renewed in the morning;

In the morning it flourishes and is renewed;

In the evening it fades and withers.

For we are consumed by your anger;

By your wrath we are overwhelmed.

You have set our iniquities before you,

Our secret sins in the light of your countenance.

For all our days pass away under your wrath;

Our years come to an end like a sigh.

The days of our life are seventy years,

Or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;

Even then their span is only toil and trouble;

They are soon gone, and we fly away.

Who considers the power of your anger?

Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.

So teach us to count our days

That we may gain a wise heart.

Turn, oh Lord! How long?

Have compassion on your servants!

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,

So that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us,

And as many years as we have seen evil.

Let your work be manifest to your servants,

And your glorious power to their children.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us!

Prosper for us the work of our hands

Oh prosper the work of our hands!

Advent: The Lord is arriving, the Prince of rulers of the world; blessed is he who is prepared to receive him.

Sing to the Lord a new song,

His praise from the end of the earth!

Let the sea roar and all that fills it,

The coastlands and their inhabitants.

Let the desert and its towns lift up their voice,

The villages that Kedar inhabits;

Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy,

Let them shout from the tops of the mountains.

Let them give glory to the Lord,

And declare his praise in the coastlands.

The Lord goes forth like a soldier,

Like a warrior he stirs up his fury;

He cries out, he shouts aloud,

He shows himself mighty against his foes.

"For a long time I have held my peace,

I have kept still and restrained myself;

Now I will cry out like a woman in labour,

I will gasp and pant.

I will lay waste mountains and hills,

And dry up all their herbage;

I will turn the rivers into islands,

And dry up the pools.

I will lead the blind by a road they do not know,

By paths they have not known I will guide them.

I will turn the darkness before them into light,

The rough places into level ground."

Praise the name of the Lord;

Give praise, oh servants of the Lord,

You that stand in the house of the Lord,

In the courts of the house of our God.

Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good;

Sing to his name, for he is gracious.

For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself,

Israel as his own possession.

For I know that the Lord is great;

Our Lord is above all gods.

Whatever the Lord pleases he does,

In heaven and on earth,

In the seas and all deeps.

He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth;

He makes lightnings for the rain,

And brings out the wind from his storehouses.

He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt,

Both human beings and animals;

He sent signs and wonders into your midst, oh Egypt,

Against Pharaoh and all his servants.

He struck down many nations

And killed mighty kings,

Sihon, king of the Amorites,

And Og, king of Bashan,

And all the kingdoms of Canaan.

He gave their land as a heritage,

A heritage to his people Israel.

Judith 8, 25-27

Let us indeed thank the Lord our God who is now testing us as he tested our forefathers in olden times. Remember the way he treated Abraham, the ordeals Isaac had to bear with and all that happened to Jacob. Just as the Lord has purified them through fire to search their hearts, so now is the Lord also doing to us, not to punish us, but as a warning to whosoever is near to his heart as a foreboding.

End Prayers here

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