Thursday 7.00-8.00pm

Psalm 22

¹ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
² My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.^[b]
3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.^[c]
4 In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
⁵ To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
⁶ But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
⁷ All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
⁸ “He trusts in the LORD,” they say, “let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”
⁹ Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
¹⁰ From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
¹¹ Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
¹² Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
¹³ Roaring lions that tear their prey open their mouths wide against me.
¹⁴ I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted within me.
¹⁵ My mouth^[d] is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.
¹⁶ Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce^[e] my hands and my feet.
¹⁷ All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me.
¹⁸ They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.
¹⁹ But you, LORD, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
²⁰ Deliver me from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.
²¹ Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
²² I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.
²³ You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
²⁴ For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.
²⁵ From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you^[f] I will fulfill my vows.
²⁶ The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the LORD will praise him— may your hearts live forever!
²⁷ All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
²⁸ for dominion belongs to the LORD
and he rules over the nations.
²⁹ All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.
³⁰ Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord.
³¹ They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!

Pray

Loving God, in a world that doubts everything it hears; and,
even with wide open eyes, doubts everything it sees; we know
we can trust you in all things. In a world that often scoffs at
our faith and trust in God, we praise you that every day you
do continue to demonstrate your trustworthiness to people
who have eyes to see, and ears to hear your gentle words
of encouragement, grace and mercy. We offer our praises to
our God, because of God’s faithfulness in listening and acting.

© 2012 Joan Stott – "The Timeless Psalms" RCL Psalm Year B, used with permission

An article from Trinity Wall Street

Thursday 8.00 - 9.00pm

Isaiah 53: 1-12

¹ Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
⁴ Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
⁸ By oppression^[a] and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.^[b]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
¹⁰ Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes^[c] his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
¹¹ After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life^[d] and be satisfied^[e];
by his knowledge^[f] my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,^[g]
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,^[h]
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

Pray

This is the day when life is raw,                                                                                                                          quivering,
terrifying:
The day of numbed emotions,
the day of blunt nails
and splintered wood,
of bruised flesh
and red blood.
The day we loathe, when hopes are crushed.
The day we long for,
when pretences fall away—
Because the worst that we can do
cannot kill the love of God. Gracious God,
your love is a light in our darkness,
vulnerable, yet unquenchable.
We would stand with Christ,
in the midst of the horrors of this world
where betrayal and death
constantly threaten your love and peace.

©1996 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

An Article from "A Reader in Writing" -  Reflections during Maundy Thursday Vigil

Thursday 9 - 10pm

John 13:31-38

Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial

³¹ When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. ³² If God is glorified in him,^[a] God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
³³ “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
³⁶ Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”
Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”
³⁷ Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
³⁸ Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!

Pray

Almighty God,           

we pray you graciously to behold this your family,

for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed,

and given into the hands of sinners,

and to suffer death upon the cross;

who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

From The Book of Common Prayer

Thursday 10 – 11 pm

John 14: 1-14

Jesus Comforts His Disciples

¹ “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God^[a]; trust also in me. ² My Father’s house has plenty of room; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. ⁴ You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Jesus the Way to the Father

⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you really know me, you will know^[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
⁸ Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
⁹ Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. ¹¹ Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. ¹² Very truly I tell you, all who have faith in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Pray

Lord Jesus,
by your cross and resurrection
deliver us
by your witness to the truth
deliver us
by your passion and death
deliver us
by your victory over the grave
deliver us
from the lust of power
deliver us
from the conspiracy of silence
deliver us
from the worship of weapons
deliver us
from the slaughter of innocents
deliver us
from the nightmare of hunger
deliver us
from the peace that is no peace
deliver us
from security that is no security
deliver us
from the politics of terror
deliver us
from the plundering of the earth's resources
deliver us
from the dispossession of the poor
deliver us
from the despair of this age
deliver us
by the light of the gospel
give us peace
by the good news for the poor
give us peace
by your healing of our wounds
give us peace
by faith in your word
give us peace
by hunger and thirst for justice
give us peace
by the coming of your kingdom
give us peace
Amen.

John Davies, England    Let Justice Roll Down, CAFOD

Thursday 11pm – midnight

John 14: 15-31

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit

¹⁵ “If you love me, keep my commands. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be^[a] in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹ Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹ Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. Anyone who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
²² Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
²³ Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. ²⁴ Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
²⁵ “All this I have spoken while still with you. ²⁶ But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. ²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
²⁸ “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. ²⁹ I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. ³⁰ I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, ³¹ but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
“Come now; let us leave.

Pray


Today we walk with Christ in the dark shadow of the Cross,                                                                                  
Knowing we have weighed him down,                                                                                                                          
Our burdens crushed his shoulders,                                                                                                                               

His suffering is for us,                                                                                                                                                      
For us he willingly endured death.                                                                                                                                 

May we trust in God alone,                                                                                                                                       
And walk the way of the Cross together,                                                                                                                    
Let us move forward without fear into God’s eternal purposes.                                                                              

Then we will never know disgrace,                                                                                                                         
And we will learn to praise our God who does not abandon us.                                                                                    

In the midst of grief and despair,                                                                                                                                
May we know that without darkness nothing is birthed,                                                                             
Without light nothing will blossom and flower.                                                                                                        

May we sense Easter springtime coming,                                                                                                       
Death’s dark and overwhelming night will give way to resurrection life.                                                                                                                                     
May we throw off our grave clothes,                                                                                                                                
And all the weights that hold us down,                                                                                                          
Looking and listening for signs of resurrection life,                                                                                              
May we take on the life of the one who raised Christ from the dead.                                                                 
And respond to the Spirit of God who lives within us.                                                                                                
Lord have mercy,                                                                                                                                                       
When we stand in the shadow of the cross.                                                                                                              
Christ have mercy,                                                                                                                                                        
When we kneel with repentant hearts.                                                                                                                        
Lord have mercy,                                                                                                                                                                    
And shine your resurrection light on us.

Christine Sine – www.godspace.wordpress.com

Friday midnight - 1.00am

John 17: 1-18:1

Jesus Prays to Be Glorified

¹ After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. ² For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. ³ Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. ⁴ I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. ⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

⁶ “I have revealed you^[a] to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. ⁸ For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. ⁹ I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰ All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. ¹¹ I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of^[b] your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. ¹² While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by^[c] that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
¹³ “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. ¹⁴ I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. ¹⁵ My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. ¹⁷ Sanctify them by^[d] the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Jesus Prays for All Believers

²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
²⁴ “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
²⁵ “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

John 18

Jesus Arrested

¹ When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it.



Pray

A Prayer of Reconciliation for Good Friday

Ever-present God, on this Good Friday night,

our whole world is engulfed in shadows

as we remember the story of Jesus’ death.

We confess that we want to push the fast-forward button on this familiar story

because it hurts so much.

It hurts to think of the betrayal and arrest of Jesus.

It hurts to imagine Jesus abandoned and suffering on the cross

with only a faithful few watching him breathe his last breath.

It hurts to watch your light overtaken by the shadows of the world.

              

But we must find our place in this crucifixion story and feel the pain that is there:

The pain of the world,

of faithless decisions; of betrayal; of injustice.

Jesus entered that pain out of faithfulness to you and to us,

to witness to the Truth that is Justice, Wholeness and Love.

We confess, we are afraid to enter this pain with Jesus.

Strengthen us with your courage;

offer glimpses of hope in the shadows of death;

let us know you are present with us here in this moment of pain;

now as always.

http://www.ucc.org/worship/worship-ways/

Friday 1.00-2.00am

The Last 50 yards - Sermon

Matthew 26: 36-45

Gethsemane

³⁶ Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷ He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸ Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
³⁹ Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
⁴⁰ Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. ⁴¹ “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
⁴² He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
⁴³ When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. ⁴⁴ So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
⁴⁵ Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.

Additional Readings

Mark 14: 32-42
Luke 22: 39-46
Pray

O Jesus, how many generous souls                                                                                                    
have kept Thee company in the Garden,                                                                                                            
sharing Thy bitterness and Thy mortal anguish                                                                               
How many hearts in the course of the centuries                                                                                    
have responded generously to Thy invitation                                                                                     
May this multitude of souls, then, in this supreme hour,                                                                         
be a comfort to Thee, who, better than the disciples,                                                                        
share with Thee the distress of Thy heart,                                                                                            
and cooperate with Thee for their own salvation and that of others.                                                     
And grant that I also may be of their number,                                                                                    
that I also may offer Thee some relief.                                                                                                Padre Pio 1887-1968