Transcription
[Pastor Brian Kiley]
Welcome to Bridgeway Christian Church’s Daily Advent Prayer. My name is Brian Kiley and I have been part of the Bridgeway community for 13 years. Today is Friday, December 19th, and on Fridays during Advent we will be praying selections from the Book of Common Prayer, which includes both scripture passages and pre-written prayers.
I invite you to pray along with me as I pray out loud. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Mark 8 34.
Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God. Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.
We have offended against your holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not have done. And apart from your grace, there is no health in us.
O Lord, have mercy on us. Spare all those who confess their faults. Restore all those who are penitent according to your promises declared to all people in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake that we may now live a godly, righteous, and sober life to the glory of your holy name. Grant to your faithful people, merciful Lord, pardon and peace, that we may be cleansed from all our sins and serve you with a quiet mind through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Our King and Savior now draws near. O come, let us adore him. O come, let us sing unto the Lord.
Let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and show ourselves glad in him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods.
In his hands are all the depths of the earth, and the heights of the hills are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands prepared the dry land. O come, let us worship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our maker.
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Psalm 119 verses 89 through 104. Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.
Your faithfulness endures to all generations. You have established the earth, and it stands fast. By your appointment they stand this day, for all things are your servants.
If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life. I am yours, save me, for I have sought your precepts.
The wicked lie in wait to destroy me, but I consider your testimonies. I have seen a limit to all perfection, but your commandment is exceedingly broad. O how I love your law.
It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me.
How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. 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. We praise you, O God. We acclaim you as Lord.
All creation worships you, the Father Everlasting. To you all angels, all the powers of heaven, the cherubim, and seraphim, sing in endless praise. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Through the world the Holy Church acclaims you, Father of majesty unbounded, your true and only Son worthy of all praise, and the Holy Spirit advocate and guide. You, Christ, are the King of glory, the eternal Son of the Father. When you took our flesh to set us free, you humbly chose the virgin’s womb.
You overcame the sting of death and opened to the kingdom of heaven to all believers. You are seated at God’s right hand in glory. We believe that you will come to be our judge.
Come then, Lord, and help your people, bought with the price of your own blood, and bring us with your saints to glory everlasting. Luke 1, 68-79. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to show the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. 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. Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us. 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. Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy, but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified, mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace, through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. Amen.
Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we, your unworthy servants, give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us, and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life, but above all, for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts, we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days.
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen. Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God. Glory to God, whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to him from generation to generation, in the Church and in Christ Jesus, forever and ever.
Amen.