O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall declare your praise.
Glory to the Father, and of the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Give glory to God, our light and our life.
Oh, calm, let us worship him.
Oh, come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God, and the great King above all gods.
It is hand are the caverns of the year;
the heights of the hills are also his.
The sea is his, for you made it,
and his hands have molded the dry land.
Oh, come, but us bow down and bend the knee,
and kneel before the Lord our maker.
For he is our God, and we are the people in his of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
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.
Give glory to God, our light and our life. Oh, calm, let us worship him.

Psalm 38
O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger; do not punish me in your wrath. For your arrows have already pierced me, and your hand presses hard upon me. There is no health and my flesh, because of your indignation; there is no soundness in my body, because of my sin. For my iniquities overwhelming; like a heavy burden they are too much for me to bear. My wounds stink and fester by reason of my foolishness. I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; I go about in mourning all the day long. My loins are filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body.I am utterly numb and crushed; I well, because of the groaning of my heart. O Lord, you know all my desires, and my sighing is not hidden from you. My heart is pounding, my strength has failed me, and the brightness of my eyes is gone from me. My friends and companions drawback from my affliction; my neighbors stand afar off. Those who seek after my life lay snares for me; those who strive to hurt me speak of my ruin and plot treachery all the day long. But I am like the deaf who do not hear, like those who are mute and do not open their mouth. I have become like one who does not hear and from whose mouth comes no defense. For in you, O Lord, have I fixed my hope; you will answer me, O Lord my God. For I said, "Do not let them rejoice at my expense, those who gloat over me when my foot slips." Truly, I am on the verge of falling, and my pain is always with me. I will confess my iniquity and be sorry for my sin. Those who are my enemies without cause are mighty, and many in number are those who wrongfully hate me. Those who repay evil for good slander me, because I follow the course that is right. O Lord, do not forsake me; be not far from me, O my God. Make haste to help me, O Lord of my salvation.

Let us pray,
Lord our God, you did not forget the pierced body of your Son nor the mockery his love received. Do not abandon us, your children, weighed down with sins, but give us the fullness of your mercy in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Psalm 39
I said, "I will keep watch upon my ways, so that I do not offend with my tongue. I will put a muzzle on my mouth while the wicked are in my presence." So I held my tongue and said nothing; I refrained from rash words; but my pain became unbearable. My heart was hot within me; while I pondered, the fire burst into flame; I spoke out with my tongue: Lord, let me know my end and the number of my days, so that I may know how short my life is. You have given me a mere handful of days, and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight; truly, even those who stand erect are but a puff of wind. We walk about like shadow, and in vain we are in turmoil; we heap up riches and cannot tell who will gather them. And now, what is my hope? Oh Lord, my hope is in you. Deliver me from all my transgressions and do not make me the time of the fool. I fell silent and did not open my mouth, for surely it was you that that it. Take your affliction from me; I am worn down by the blows of your hand. With rebukes for sin you punish us; like a moth you eat away all that is dear to us; truly, everyone is but a puff of wind. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears. For I am but a sojourner with you, a wayfarer, as all my forebears were. Turn your gaze from me, that I may be glad again, before I go my way and am no more.

Let us pray,
Heavenly Father,through your Son you taught us not to fear tomorrow but to commit our lives to your care. Withhold not your Spirit from us, but help us find a life of peace after these days of trouble; for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Let us pray,
Redeem us, O God, out of all our poor ways and nine teach us thy will for us by calling us back each day to the things which we know are most certainly true. Direct our lives by the constant pressure on them of other lives that have felt the touch of thy hand and loved the beauty of thy peace. Until our faces be set toward thee, and all our hopes hid forever in thine. For Jesus' sake. Amen.

A reading from Hosea 4:11 – 19;

Wine and new wine take away the understanding. My people inquire of the thing of wood, and their staff is him oracles. For spirit of harlotry has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the harlot. They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and make offerings upon the hills, under oak, poplar, and terabinth, because their shade is good.
Therefore your daughters play the harlot, and your brides commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with harlots, and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin.
Though you play the harlot, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty. Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Bethaven, and swear not, "As the Lord lives." Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; can the Lord now feed them like a lamb and a broad pasture?
Ephraim is joined to idols, let them alone. A band of drunkards, they give themselves to harlotry; they love shame more than their glory. A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their altars.

A reading from Acts 21:37 – 22:16.

As Paul was about to be brought back into the barracks, he said to the tribune, "May I say something to you?" And he said, "Do you know Greek? Are you not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a revolt and lead the 4000 men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?" Paul replied, "I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city; I beg you, let me speak to the people." And when he had given him leave, Paul, standing on the steps, motion with his hand to the people; and when there was a great hush, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, saying:
"Brethren and fathers, here the defense which I now make for you."
And when they heard that he addressed them in the Hebrew language, they were the more quiet. And he said:
"I am a Jew, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as you all are this day. I persecuted this Way to the death, finding and delivering to prison both men and women, as the high priest and the whole Council of Elders bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brethren, and I journeyed to Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.
"As I made my journey and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shown about me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me,'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' And I answered,'Who are you, Lord?' And he said to me,'I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting.' Now those who are with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who is speaking to me. And I said, 'What shall I do, Lord?' And the Lord said to me, 'Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.' And when I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus.
"And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who live there, came to me, and standing by me said to me, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight.' And in that very hour I received my sight and saw him. And he said, 'The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Just One and a fear of ways from his mouth; for you will be a witness for him to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sin, calling on his name.'"

A reading from the Gospel according to St. Luke the sixth chapter verses 12 through 26:

In these days he went out to the mountain to pray; and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called his disciples, and chose from them 12, whom he named apostles; Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who is called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowds sought to touch him, for power came forth from him and healed them all.
And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:
"Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
"Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied.
"Blessed are you that we now, for you shall laugh.
"Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the son of man! Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
"But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation.
"Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger.
"Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
"Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets."

The gospel of our Lord. Amen.

A reading from Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest:

When the Spirit of God is shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, we begin deliver the to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ's interests and other people, and Jesus Christ is interested in every kind of man there is. We have no right and Christian were to be guided by our affinities this is one of the biggest tests of our relationship to Jesus Christ. The delight of sacrifice is that I lay down my life or my Friend, not fling it away, but deliberately lay my life out for Him and His interests and other people, not for cause. Paul spent himself for one purpose only – that he might win men to Jesus Christ. All attracted to Jesus all the time, never to himself. "I am made all things to men, that I might by all means save some." When a man says he must develop a holy life alone with God, he is of no more use to his fellow men: he puts himself on a pedestal, away from the common run of men. Paul became a sacramental personality; wherever he went, Jesus Christ helped Himself to his life. Many of us are after our own ends, and Jesus Christ cannot help Himself to our lives. If we are abandoned to Jesus, we have no weapons of our own to serve. Paul said he knew how to be a "doormat" without resenting it, because the mainspring of his life was devotion to Jesus. We are apt to be devoted, not to Jesus Christ, but to the things which emancipate us spiritually. That was not Paul's motive. "I could wish myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren" – why, extravagant – is it? When a man is in love it is not an exaggeration to talk that way, and Paul is in love with Jesus Christ.

Let us pray,
My Father, do with me as you will, only help me against myself and for you; I am your child, the inheritor of your spirit, your be, a part of yourself, glorious in you, but groaned poor in me; let me be your dog, your horse, your anything, anything you will; let me be yours in any shape the love that is my father may please to have me; let me be yours in any way, and my own or another's in no way is yours. Amen.
George MacDonald (1824 – 1905)

In many and various ways God spoke to his people of old by the prophets.
But now in these last days he has spoken to us by his son.
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty Savior, born of the house of his servant David. Through his holy prophets he promised of old that he would save us from our enemies from the hands of all who hate us. He promised to show mercy to our father's Father's and er his holy covenant. This was the oath you swore to our father Abraham: the set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his side all the days of our life.
You, my 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 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, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
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.

Let us pray,
O Lord, Almighty and everlasting God, you have brought us in safety to this new day; preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome in adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Lord, remember us in your kingdom and teach us to pray:
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,
and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
The Lord Almighty bless us, and direct our days and our deeds in his peace.
Amen.