Sacred Heart
EVENING PRAYER II
GREETING as in Morning Prayer
DOXOLOGY
PSALM 42
The love of God sustains my praise by night, my Prayer to the living God.
As a deer craves running water,
I thirst for you, my God;
I thirst for God,
the living God.
When will I see your face?
Tears are my steady diet.
Day and night I hear,
“Where is your God?”
I cry my heart out,
I remember better days:
when I entered the house of God,
I was caught in the joyful sound
of pilgrims giving thanks.
Why are you sad, my heart?
Why do you grieve?
Wait for the Lord.
I will yet praise God my savior.
My heart is sad.
Even from Jordan and Hermon,
from the peak of Mizar,
I remember you.
There the deep roars to deep;
your torrents crash over me.
The love God summoned by day
sustained my praise by night,
my Prayer to the living God.
I complain to God,
who I thought was rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why am I bent double
under the weight of enemies?
“Their insults grind me to dust.
Day and night they say,
‘Where is your God?’”
Why are you sad, my heart?
Why do you grieve?
Wait for the Lord.
I will yet praise God my savior.
Ephesians 1: 3–10
Through extravagant love, O Christ, our sins have been forgiven.
Bless God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who blessed us from heaven through Christ
with every blessing of the Spirit.
Before laying the world’s foundation,
God chose us in Christ
to live a pure and holy life.
God determined out of love
to adopt us through Jesus Christ
for the praise and glory of that grace
granted us in the Beloved.
By Christ’s blood we were redeemed,
our sins forgiven
through extravagant love.
With perfect wisdom and insight
God freely displayed the mystery
of what was always intended:
a plan for the fullness of time
to unite the entire universe through Christ.
READING
1 John 4: 7 – 12
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
CANTICLE OF MARY
Let us love one another, because love is from God.
I acclaim the greatness of the Lord,
I delight in God my savior,
who regarded my humble state.
Truly from this day on all ages
will call me blest.
For God, wonderful in power,
has used that strength for me.
Holy the name of the Lord!
Whose mercy embraces the faithful,
one generation to the next.
The mighty arm of God
scatters the proud in their conceit,
Pulls tyrants from their thrones,
and raises up the humble.
The Lord fills the starving
and lets the rich go hungry.
God rescues lowly Israel,
recalling the promise of mercy,
the promise made to our ancestors,
to Abraham’s heirs forever.
INTERCESSIONS
Jesus, Catherine McAuley cherished devotion to your meek and humble heart. “It will soften many a sorrow and preserve us from many an imperfection.” Stir up in us this night an ardent desire to love you more. Let us learn from Catherine who loved you so deeply.
“The loving heart of our Divine Spouse on earth is proposed to us by our holy Rule, as an object of our tenderest devotion and love”:
~ Jesus, let us never forget your great love for us.
“Surrounded as we are with dangers and temptations, where will we seek refuge, if not in the Heart of our dear Lord?”
~ Jesus, let us come to you in times of turmoil and disillusionment.
“Let us remember, if we wish to be genuine disciples of the Sacred Heart, we must learn those virtues which particularly characterize it”:
~ Jesus, teach us meekness and humility.
This devotion “gives rest to the soul, by imparting a peace and a security, a heavenly composure, which all the joys of earth can never give”:
~ Jesus, let our lives be centered in you so that nothing will disturb us or diminish our dedication to your mission.
In the ordinary events of daily life, “could we not beg of Jesus to consume our souls with His love” and to allow us “to drink, one day, of the torrent of His delights”:
~ Jesus, draw us to yourself in this life and in eternity.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Prayer
You love is beyond our understanding, O Christ. You hold us in loving regard and cherish our tears. You are like a mother who tenderly cradles her child against the pain and suffering of life. May your love poured out so freely upon us flow through us to all in need of mercy. Fill our hearts with your great love. Amen.
Blessing as in Morning Prayer