All Hallows Evening Prayer for Wednesday Evening (March 31, 2021)

Evening Prayer

The Service of Light

Jesus Christ is the light of the world.
A light no darkness can extinguish.

Open this link in a new tab to hear David von Kampen’s choral arrangement of “Joyous Light of Glory.”

Joyous light of glory of the immortal Father:
Heavenly, holy, blessed Jesus Christ,
We have come to the setting of the Sun
And we look to the evening light.
We sing to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
You are worthy of being praised
with pure voices forever.
O Son of God, O Giver of life,
The universe proclaims your glory,
your glory, your glory.

Thanksgiving

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.

Blessed are you, O Lord our God,
the Shepherd of Israel,
their pillar of cloud by day,
their pillar of fire by night.
In these forty days you lead us
into the desert of repentance
that in this pilgrimage of prayer
we may learn to be your people once more.
In fasting and service you bring us back to your heart.
Open our eyes to your presence in the world
and free our hands to lead others
to the radiant splendour of your mercy.
Be with us in these journey days
for without you we are lost and will perish.
To you alone be dominion and glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

Psalm 141 is sung and incense may be burned.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Randall De Bruyn’s arrangement of Psalm 141 from The Grail (England).

Like burning incense, O Lord, let my prayer rise up to you.
Like burning incense, O Lord, let my prayer rise up to you.

I have called to you, Lord, hasten to help me.
Hear my voice when I cry to you.
Let my prayer arise before you like incense.
the raising of my hands like the evening oblation.

Set, O Lord, a guard over my mouth,
keep watch, O Lord, at the door of my lips!
Do not turn my heart to things that are wrong,
to evil deeds with those who are sinners.

Never allow me to share in their feasting.
If the righteous strike or reprove me, it is a kindness;
but let the oil of the wicked n’er anoint my head.
Let my prayer be ever against their malice.

To you, Lord God, my eyes are turned;
in you I take refuge; spare my soul!
From the trap they have laid for me keep me safe;
Keep me from the snares of those who do evil.

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.

Like burning incense, O Lord, let my prayer rise up to you.

Silence is kept.

Let the incense of our repentant prayer ascend before you, O Lord, and let your loving kindness descend upon us, that with purified minds we may sing your praises with the Church on earth and the whole heavenly host, and may glorify you forever and ever. Amen.

The Psalms

Open this link in a new tab to hear Tim Manion’s arrangement of “Psalm 22: My God, my God.”

My God, my God,
why have you abandoned me?
My God, my God,
why have you abandoned me?

All who see me laugh at me.
They shake their heads, they shake their heads.
You trusted in God, let God deliver you;
deliver you if God loves you.

My God, my God,
why have you abandoned me?

Closely now, they press me ‘round
and pierce me through,
and pierce me through.
You trusted in God, let God deliver you;
deliver you if God loves you.

My God, my God,
why have you abandoned me?

All is taken, all is lost.
Be near, my help.
Come near my help.
I trusted in God, may God deliver me,
O deliver me as you love me.

I long to stand in the midst of your people,
and sing your name.
Give God your laud.
Cry out your praises, and hold fast,
Hold fast to your Lord.

My God, my God,
why have you abandoned me?
My God, my God,
why have you abandoned me?

Silence is kept.

Restless with grief and fear,
the abandoned turn to you:
in every hour of trial,
good Lord, deliver us,
O God most holy, God most strong,
whose wisdom is the cross of Christ.
Amen.

The Proclamation of the Word

The Reading

1 Corinthians 11: 23-26 The Institution of the Lord’s Supper

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Silence is kept.

Homily

On the Night That He Was Betrayed

In some branches of the Christian Church, it is a longstanding tradition to commemorate the institution of the Lord’s Supper on Maundy Thursday, the Thursday in Holy Week, the week before Easter Sunday. The service is held in the evening and is a communion service. It may include the washing of feet in the imitation of Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet at the Last Supper. In Anglican, Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, and Lutheran churches, the altar or communion table is stripped at the conclusion of the service or a short time afterwards. The chancel may also be stripped, and any crosses veiled.

The New Testament contains four accounts of the institution of Lord’s Supper, three in the Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—and one in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Today’s reading is Paul’s account of the institution of the Lord’s Supper.

Different Christian traditions have different views of the Lord’s Supper. Some consider it an ordinance while others considerate a sacrament. An ordinance is something that is commanded by God. A sacrament is an outward sign of an inward spiritual reality—something visible and tangible that points to or connects us with the invisible and the intangible.

Most Christian traditions, however, agree that the Lord’s Supper is a commemoration of our Lord’s suffering and death. Most agree that it is a proclamation of what Jesus did for us on the cross. Most agree that Jesus is present in some way, if not in, with, or under the forms of bread and wine or grape juice, then in the gathering of his people. Jesus has promised to be present when two or three have gathered in his name. The Holy Spirit not only connects us as the Body of Christ, but he also unites us to Jesus.

Most Christian traditions also agree that the Lord’s Supper is a means of grace. Where they do not agree is upon the mechanism by which the grace is conveyed, the form that the grace takes, and who may benefit from the grace.

Anglicans and Episcopalians as representatives of the Anglican Church tradition do not share a common view of the Lord’s Supper. Some Anglicans and Episcopalians may claim to represent “the” Anglican view, but they are only speaking for themselves and the other members of their particular school of thought. They are not speaking for all Anglicans and Episcopalians.

Several different schools of thought are represented in the Anglican Church tradition. This diversity of opinion, while welcomed by some, is lamented by others. To my mind what matters most is that whatever we believe nurtures a deeper relationship with Jesus and a life lived according to his teaching and example, a life lived to God’s glory.

One school of thought that held sway in the reformed Church of England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and which still has its adherents to this day did not see a need to precisely define how our Lord is present in the Lord’s Supper or to tie his presence to the sacramental bread and wine. They understood him to have spoken figuratively when he referred to the bread and wine as his body and blood. At the same time, they believed that for those who rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the Lord’s Supper the bread that is broken is a partaking of the body of Christ and the cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ. How this exactly takes place is a mystery and they were content to leave it that way.

Their view of the Lord’s Supper is reflected in the Articles of Religion, the reformed Church of England’s historic confession of faith, adopted in 1571; in the section on the sacraments added to The Book of Common Prayer’s Catechism in 1604, and “A Homily of the Worthily Receiving and Reverend Esteeming of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ,” published in 1563. In this view the Lord’s Supper is more than a commemoration of Jesus’ suffering and death.

But thus much we must be sure to hold, that in the Supper of the Lord, there is no vain Ceremony, no bare sign, no untrue figure of a thing absent (Matthew 26: 26): But (as the Scripture saith) the Table of the Lord, the Bread and Cup of the Lord, the memory of Christ, the Annunciation of his death, yea the Communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord, in a marvelous incorporation, which by the operation of the holy Ghost (the very bond of our conjunction with Christ) is through faith wrought in the souls of the faithful, whereby not only their souls live to eternal life, but they surely trust to win their bodies a resurrection to immortality (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).

In this view the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper provides clear evidence of God’s favor and goodwill towards us, evidence that we can trust. The sacrament is not only a sign of God’s grace, but it is also a way that God shows his favor and goodwill toward us, bestows the benefits of his grace upon us. By the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper God works invisibly in us, arousing and strengthen and confirming our faith in him.

The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper points to Jesus as our ongoing source of spiritual nourishment. During the Lord’s Supper we feed on Christ in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving. This spiritual feeding, however, is not confined to Sundays and the Lord’s Supper. We may feed on Christ every day outside of the Lord’s Supper.

Jesus described himself the true vine and his disciples as the branches. A vine provides vital nutrients to its branches, enabling them to produce not only foliage but also fruit. Jesus also described himself as the bread of life. Bread was the mainstay of the diet of the people of the ancient Mid-Eastern world. A bad wheat or barley crop and resulting poor harvest meant no bread, famine, and starvation. The people of Israel would have perished in the desert if God had not provided them with manna—bread from heaven. With these comparisons Jesus drew attention to the fact that he was the source of spiritual nourishment without whom we cannot thrive and flourish.

In the light of these spiritual truths, we should not need encouragement to partake of the Lord’s Supper as often as we can. Through the Lord’s Supper God stirs up faith and enable us to feed upon Christ, not only in the Lord’s Supper itself but also outside it. We should be eager to meet our risen Lord not only in the proclamation of the Word but also in the sharing of bread and the fruit of the vine.

Silence is kept.

The Gospel Canticle

Open this link in a new tab to hear Richard Hillert’s choral arrangement of the Magnificat.

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior;

For He has regarded
the low estate of His handmaiden.

For behold henceforth
all generations will call me blessed.

For He who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is His name;

And His mercy is on those who fear Him
from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He has put down the mighty from their thrones
and has exalted the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich He has sent empty away.

He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy
as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity forever.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen

Intercessions

Let us complete our evening prayer to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.

For peace from on high and our salvation, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.

For the welfare of all churches and for the unity of the human family, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.

For (name), our bishop, and (name), our pastor, and for all ministers of the Gospel, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.

For our nation, its government, and for all who serve and protect us, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.

For this city (town, university, monastery…). For every city and community, and for all those living in them, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.

For the good earth which God has given us and for the wisdom and will to conserve it, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.

For the safety of travelers, the recovery of the sick, the care of the destitute and the release of prisoners, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.

For an angel of peace to guide and protect us, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.

For a peaceful evening and a night free from sin, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.

For a Christian end to our lives and for all who have fallen asleep in Christ, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy.

In the communion of the Holy Spirit (and of all the saints), let us commend ourselves and one another to the living God through Christ our Lord.
To you, O Lord.

Free Prayer

In silent or spontaneous prayer all bring before God the concerns of the day.

The Collect

Everlasting God,
in your tender love for the human race
you sent your Son to take our nature,
and to suffer death upon the cross:
in your mercy
enable us to share in his obedience to your will
and in the glorious victory of his resurrection;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer is said.

And now, as our Saviour has taught us,
we are bold to say,

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,
the power, and the glory
for ever and ever.
Amen.

Dismissal

Open this link in a new tab to hear Omer Westendorf’s communion hymn, “Gift of Finest Wheat.”

You satisfy the hungry heart
with gift of finest wheat,
come give to us o saving Lord,
the bread of life to eat.

As when the shepherd calls his sheep,
they know and heed his voice;
so when You call your family Lord,
we follow and rejoice.

You satisfy the hungry heart
with gift of finest wheat,
come give to us o saving Lord,
the bread of life to eat.

With joyful lips we sing to You,
our praise and gratitude,
that You should count us worthy Lord,
to share this heavenly food.

You satisfy the hungry heart
with gift of finest wheat,
come give to us o saving Lord,
the bread of life to eat.

Is not the cup we bless and share
the blood of Christ outpoured?
Does not one cup, one loaf declare
our oneness in the Lord?

You satisfy the hungry heart
with gift of finest wheat,
come give to us o saving Lord,
the bread of life to eat.

The mystery of your presence Lord,
no mortal tongue can tell;
whom all the world cannot contain
comes in our hearts to dwell.

You satisfy the hungry heart
with gift of finest wheat,
come give to us o saving Lord,
the bread of life to eat.

*You give yourself to us o Lord,
then selfless let us be,
to serve each other in Your name
in truth and charity.

You satisfy the hungry heart
with gift of finest wheat,
come give to us o saving Lord,
the bread of life to eat.

*This verse is omitted in the video.

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us praise the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Almighty God,
who have made known to your people
the ways of eternal life,
lead them by that path, we pray,
to you, the unfading light.
Amen.