Daily Offices

Monday September 25 - Morning
Monday September 25 - Evening

How to pray the Daily Office using the New Zealand Prayerbook

A New Zealand Prayer Book Online Edition

2022-2023 Lectionary Year A [PDF]

Monday September 25 - Morning

St Sergius of Radonezh

Recommended liturgies
ANZPB pp63-66 or pp109-111

The readings are those set for Morning Prayer for September 25.

Psalm 44
Sirach 1:1-10
Mark 12:28-34
Collect

Psalm 44

¹ We have heard it with our ears, O God;
 our ancestors have told us
what you did in their days,
 in days long ago.
² With your hand you drove out the nations
 and planted our ancestors;
you crushed the peoples
 and made our ancestors flourish.
³ It was not by their sword that they won the land,
 nor did their arm bring them victory;
it was your right hand, your arm,
 and the light of your face, for you loved them.

⁴ You are my King and my God,
 who decrees victories for Jacob.
⁵ Through you we push back our enemies;
 through your name we trample our foes.
⁶ I put no trust in my bow,
 my sword does not bring me victory;
⁷ but you give us victory over our enemies,
 you put our adversaries to shame.
⁸ In God we make our boast all day long,
 and we will praise your name forever.

⁹ But now you have rejected and humbled us;
 you no longer go out with our armies.
¹⁰ You made us retreat before the enemy,
 and our adversaries have plundered us.
¹¹ You gave us up to be devoured like sheep
 and have scattered us among the nations.
¹² You sold your people for a pittance,
 gaining nothing from their sale.

13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors,
 the scorn and derision of those around us.
¹⁴ You have made us a byword among the nations;
 the peoples shake their heads at us.
¹⁵ I live in disgrace all day long,
 and my face is covered with shame
¹⁶ at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me,
 because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.

¹⁷ All this came upon us,
 though we had not forgotten you;
 we had not been false to your covenant.
¹⁸ Our hearts had not turned back;
 our feet had not strayed from your path.
¹⁹ But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals;
 you covered us over with deep darkness.

²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God
 or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
²¹ would not God have discovered it,
 since he knows the secrets of the heart?
²² Yet for your sake we face death all day long;
 we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

²³ Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep?
 Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever.
²⁴ Why do you hide your face
 and forget our misery and oppression?

²⁵ We are brought down to the dust;
 our bodies cling to the ground.
²⁶ Rise up and help us;
 rescue us because of your unfailing love.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now,
and shall be for ever. Amen.

Sirach 1:1-10

¹ All wisdom is from the Lord,
 and with him it remains forever.
² The sand of the sea, the drops of rain,
 and the days of eternity—who can count them?
³ The height of heaven, the breadth of the earth,
 the abyss, and wisdom—who can search them out?
^{4 [5]} Wisdom was created before all things
 and prudent understanding from eternity.
^{6 [7]} The root of wisdom—to whom has it been revealed?
 Her subtleties—who knows them?
⁸ There is but one who is wise, greatly to be feared,
 seated upon his throne: the Lord.
⁹ It is he who created her;
 he saw her and took her measure;
 he poured her out upon all his works,
¹⁰ upon all the living according to his gift;
 he lavished her upon those who love him.

Mark 12:28-34

28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

29“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

32“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

34When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

Collect

Everloving God,
your servant Sergius
was filled with an intense love for you
that made him a shining light
among your people in Russia;
by the same Spirit that empowered him,
strengthen our faith,
and set our hearts on fire
to live as true disciples
of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Monday September 25 - Evening

St Sergius of Radonezh

Recommended liturgies
ANZPB pp66-68 or pp111-113

The readings are those set for Evening Prayer for September 25.

Psalm 47
1 Kings 12:25-13:10
Acts 19:8-20
Collect

Psalm 47

¹ Clap your hands, all you nations;
 shout to God with cries of joy.

² For the Lord Most High is awesome,
 the great King over all the earth.
³ He subdued nations under us,
 peoples under our feet.
⁴ He chose our inheritance for us,
 the pride of Jacob, whom he loved.

⁵ God has ascended amid shouts of joy,
 the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets.
⁶ Sing praises to God, sing praises;
 sing praises to our King, sing praises.
⁷ For God is the King of all the earth;
 sing to him a psalm of praise.

⁸ God reigns over the nations;
 God is seated on his holy throne.
⁹ The nobles of the nations assemble
 as the people of the God of Abraham,
for the kings of the earth belong to God;
 he is greatly exalted.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now,
and shall be for ever. Amen.

1 Kings 12:25-13:10

²⁵ Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel.

²⁶ Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. ²⁷ If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.”

²⁸ After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” ²⁹ One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. ³⁰ And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other.

³¹ Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites. ³² He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had made. ³³ On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings.

^{[13] 1} By the word of the Lord a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. ² By the word of the Lord he cried out against the altar: “Altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.’” ³ That same day the man of God gave a sign: “This is the sign the Lord has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.”

⁴ When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back. ⁵ Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the Lord.

⁶ Then the king said to the man of God, “Intercede with the Lord your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored and became as it was before.

⁷ The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me for a meal, and I will give you a gift.”

⁸ But the man of God answered the king, “Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here. ⁹ For I was commanded by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’” ¹⁰ So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.

Acts 19:8-20

⁸ Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. ⁹ But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. ¹⁰ This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.

¹¹ God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, ¹² so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

¹³ Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” ¹⁴ Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. ¹⁵ One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” ¹⁶ Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

¹⁷ When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. ¹⁸ Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. ¹⁹ A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. ²⁰ In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

Collect

Everloving God,
your servant Sergius
was filled with an intense love for you
that made him a shining light
among your people in Russia;
by the same Spirit that empowered him,
strengthen our faith,
and set our hearts on fire
to live as true disciples
of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.