Morning Prayer for Friday 3.13.24

Today we remember James Theodore Holly, The first Black Bishop in the Episcopal Church. Here is a link to our liturgy: Morning Prayer 3.13.26, James Theodore Holly, Bishop, 1911 | Daily Office Network

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:02

Good morning and welcome. I'm Father Tom Royd, the Vicar of the Daily Office Network. I'm an ordained priest in the Diocese of Minnesota. The Daily Office Network is a community of Christians who gather together on a daily basis to pray morning prayer. We come from several different faith traditions in several different countries. We use the 1979 Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer as our guide. We mix in artwork, news story, we have music at the end. All are welcome here where we do our best to exercise tolerance and decency with one another. Now let's settle in and begin morning prayer. Today is Friday, the 13th of March, 2026. In the life of the church, our saint is James Theodore Holly, a bishop who died in the year 1911. If you're looking for our podcast, search for us on Apple or Spotify using the keywords Daily Office Network. Or come back here when it's not my document that's displaying and click on the links that are provided. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? Some battle uh footage of Iran when it was bombed. U.S. troops were told the war on Iran was, quote, all part of God's plan, unquote, a watchdog group alleges. U.S. military commanders have been invoking extremist Christian rhetoric about biblical end times to justify involvement in the Iran war to troops, according to complaints made to a watchdog group. The Religious Freedom Foundation, or MRFF, said it has received more than 200 complaints from U.S. service members across all branches of the Armed Forces, including the Marines, the Air Force, and the Space Force, about this. In the photo above, plumes of smoke from two simultaneous strikes over Tehran, Iran on March the 2nd. In a similar story, I also saw that they were also being told that our president was anointed by Jesus to lead them to end times. Pray for our military. Pray for our country. Pray for Iran. Jesus said, if anyone would come after me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. I'll lead us in the general confession of sin. I'll ask Mother Angel to pronounce absolution and Addie to lead us in the invitatory. First of the general confession of sin. God of all mercy, we confess that we have sinned against you, opposing your will in our lives. We have denied your goodness in each other, in ourselves and in the world that you have created. We repent of the evil that enslaves us, the evil we have done, and the evil done on our behalf. Forgive, restore, and strengthen us through our Savior Jesus Christ, that we may abide in your love and serve only your will. Amen.

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Almighty God, have mercy on you, forgive you all your sins through the grace of Jesus Christ, strengthen you in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in eternal life. Amen. Amen.

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Lord, open our lips.

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And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

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. Come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before God's presence with thanksgiving and raise to the Lord a shout with songs. For you are a great God. You are great above all gods. In your hands are the caverns of the earth, and the heights of the hills are yours also. The sea is yours, for you made it, and your hands have molded to dry land. Come, let us bow down and bend the knee and kneel before the Lord our Maker. For you are our God, and we are the people of your pasture and the sheep of your hand. Oh that today would hearken to your voice. Hearten not your hearts as your forebears did in the wilderness at Meribah. And on that day at Masha, when they tempted me, they put me to the test, though they had seen my works. Forty years long I detested that generation and said, This people are wayward in their hearts. They do not know my ways. So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest.

SPEAKER_06 5:45

Thank you, Eddie. Our psalm appointed for this morning is Psalm number 88. I'm going to ask Martha and Marcia to lead our psalm. Martha, would you start?

SPEAKER_04 6:05

Oh Lord, my God, my Savior. By day and night I cry to you.

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Let my prayer enter into your presence. Incline your ear to my lamentation.

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For I am full of trouble. My life is at the brink of the grave.

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I am counting among those who go down to the pit. I have become like one who has no strength.

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Lost among the dead. Like the slain who lie in the grave.

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Whom you remember no more. For they are cut off from your hand.

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You have laid me in the depths of the pit. In dark places and in the abyss.

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Your anger weighs upon me heavily. And all your great waves overwhelmed me.

SPEAKER_04 7:09

You have put my friends far from me. You have made me to be a call by them. I am in prison and cannot get free.

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My sight has failed me because of trouble. Lord, I have called upon you daily. I have stretched out my hands to you.

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Do you wake wonders for the dead? Will those who have died stand up and give you thanks?

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Will your loving kindness be declared in the grave? Your faithfulness in the land of destruction?

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Will your wonders be known in the dark? Or your righteousness in a country where all is forgotten?

SPEAKER_03 8:02

But as for me, O Lord, I cry to you for help. In the morning, my prayer comes before you.

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Lord, why have you rejected me? Why have you hidden your face from me?

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Ever since my youth, I have been wretched and at the point of death. I have borne your terrors with a troubled mind.

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Your blazing anger has swept over me. Your terrors have destroyed me.

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They surround me all day long like a flood. They encompass me on every side.

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My friend and my neighbor, you have put away from me. And darkness is my only companion.

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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. Amen.

SPEAKER_06 9:11

Thank you, Martha and Marcia. That was a great reading. It's Pharaoh seated on the throne. It's by James J. Tusot from 1900. Pharaoh welcomed Joseph's family to Egypt. It's in the Jewish Museum in New York City. Our reading, probably one of the longer ones, is in from Genesis chapter 47, verses 1 through 26. Chad, would you lead this?

SPEAKER_01 9:54

So Joseph went and told Pharaoh, My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all they possess, have come from the land of Canaan, and they are now in the land of Goshen. From among his brothers he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to his brothers, What is your occupation? And they said to Pharaoh, Your servants are shepherds, as our ancestors were. They said to Pharaoh, We have come to reside as aliens in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks because the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now we ask you, let your servants settle in the land of Goshen. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in the land of Goshen, and if you know that there are capable men among them, put them in charge of my livestock. Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and presented him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Jacob, How many are the years of your life? And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The years of my earthly sojourn are one hundred and thirty. Few and hard have been the years of my life. They do not compare with the years of the life of my ancestors during their long sojourn. Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh. Joseph settled his fathers, his father and his brothers, and granted them a holding in the land of Egypt, in the best part of the land, in the land of Ramses, as Pharaoh had instructed instructed. And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food, according to the number of their dependents. Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe. The land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine. Joseph collected all the money to be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan in exchange for the grain that they bought. And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. When the money from the land of Egypt and from the land of Canaan was spent, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? For our money is gone. And Joseph answered, Give me your livestock, and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock if your money is gone. So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds, and the donkeys. That year he supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock. And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said to him, We cannot hide from my Lord that our money is all spent, and the herds of cattle are my lords. There is nothing left in the sight of my Lord but our bodies and our lands. Shall we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food. We with our land will become slaves to Pharaoh. Just give us seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate. So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, and all the Egyptians sold their fields because the famine was severe upon them, and the land became Pharaoh's. As for the people, he made slaves of them from one end of Egypt to the other. Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh, and all lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them. Therefore they did not sell their land. Then Joseph said to the people, Now that I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh, here is seed for you. Sow the land, and at the harvest you shall give one fifth to Pharaoh, and four fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and as food for yourselves, and as your households and and as food for your little ones. They said, You have saved our lives. May it please my Lord, we will be slaves to Pharaoh. So Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt, and it stands to this day that Pharaoh should have the fifth. The land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh's. The word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_06 14:38

Thanks be to God. Thank you, Chad. Our first canical is a song of penitence. Mother Angel, would you lead this?

SPEAKER_09 14:50

O Lord and ruler of the hosts of heaven, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of all their righteous offspring. You made the heavens and the earth with all their vast array. All things quake with fear at your presence. They tremble because of your power, but your merciful promise is beyond all measure. It surpasses all that our minds can fathom. O Lord, you are full of compassion, long suffering and abounding in mercy. You hold back your hand, you do not punish as we deserve. In your great goodness, Lord, you have promised forgiveness to sinners that they may repent of their sin and be saved. And now, O Lord, I bend the knee of my heart and make my appeal sure of your gracious goodness. I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I know my wickedness only too well. Therefore I make this prayer to you. Forgive me, Lord, forgive me. Do not let me perish in my sin, nor condemn me to the depths of the earth. For you, O Lord, are the God of those who repent, and in me you will show forth your goodness. Unworthy as I am, you will save me in accordance with your great mercy, and I will praise you without ceasing all the days of my life. For all the powers of heaven sing your praises, and yours is the glory to ages of ages. Amen.

SPEAKER_06 17:11

Thank you, Mother Angel. Photograph we see a boxer in a gym punching in the air. Shadow boxing. This man is training for a fight, but new gyms are opening in America promising non-contact boxing, well suited for people with Parkinson's disease and other balance issues. Our reading is from First Corinthians chapter nine, verses sixteen through twenty-seven. Paul, would you lead this?

SPEAKER_08 17:51

If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting. For an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel. For I do if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this, that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel. For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law, though I myself am not under the law, so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law, though I am not free from God's law, but am under Christ's law, so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might be all means, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air, but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified. The word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_06 20:20

Thanks be to God. Thank you, Paul. Our second canticle is a song to the lamb. Mother Unjell, would you lead this one?

SPEAKER_09 20:33

Splendor and honor and kingly power are yours by right, O Lord our God, for you created everything that is, and by your will they were created, and have their being, and yours by right, O Lamb that was slain, for with your blood you have redeemed for God from every family, language, people, and nation, a kingdom of priests to serve our God, and so to him who sits upon the throne, and to Christ the Lamb, be worship and praise, dominion and splendor forever and forevermore. Splendor and honor and kingly power are yours by right, O Lord our God.

SPEAKER_06 21:32

Thank you, Mother Angel. Jesus defies the laws of gravity and walks on water. Of course it's beyond belief. That's why he did it. Our reading is from Mark chapter six, verses forty seven through fifty-six. Deacon Diana, would you lead this?

SPEAKER_00 22:00

When evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and Jesus was alone on the land. When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea. He intended to pass them by, but when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid. Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased, and they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. When they had crossed over, they came to land at Genesaret, and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was, and wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed. The word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_06 23:18

Thanks be to God. Thank you, Deacon. And now the apostles' creed. John R., would you lead us in the creed?

SPEAKER_07 23:32

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day, he rose again, he ascended into heaven, and he is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

SPEAKER_06 24:18

Amen. And now the prayers begin with our Lord's Prayer. Jill, would you lead us in the Lord's Prayer and then we'll read the suffrages?

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The Lord be with you.

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And also with you.

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Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.

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Help us, O God our Savior.

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Deliver us and forgive us our sins.

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Look upon your congregation.

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Give to your people the blessing of peace.

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Declare your glory among the nations.

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And your wonders among all peoples.

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Do not let the oppressed be shamed and turned away.

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Never forget the lives of your poor.

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Continue your loving kindness to those who know you.

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And your favor to those who are true of heart.

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Satisfy us by your loving kindness in the morning.

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So shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.

SPEAKER_06 25:42

Thank you, Jill. Photograph of our saint of the day or a picture of our saint of the day. James T. Hawley, the first African-American bishop in the Episcopal Church, was especially attracted to Haiti because of its successful slave revolt against the French in 1803, causing Napoleon to abandon his dreams of a French empire in the New World and to sell the giant Louisiana territory to the United States. Holly led his family and a group of African Americans to this island nation, where he established churches, schools, and medical missions throughout Hispanola. His diocese of Haiti is now the largest in the Episcopal Church. We talked about that yesterday. He also ordained Benjamin Isaac Wilson as the first Anglican priest in the Dominican Republic in 1898. Hawley endured many hardships, including the loss of most of his family. But God never left him and wrote his name among the missionary greats. James T. Hawley, our saint of the day. Deacon Elizabeth, would you lead us in these two prayers?

SPEAKER_12 27:25

Sure. Most gracious God, we thank you that your servant James Theodore Harley labored to build a church in which all might be free. Grant that, inspired by his testimony, we may overcome our prejudice and honor those whom you call from every family, language, people, and nation, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Almighty God, whose most dear son went 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.

SPEAKER_06 28:24

Amen. Thank you, Deacon. We'll continue with the collect for the mission of the church. I'm going to ask Robert to lead us in the collect for the mission of the church, and then I'll bless the Lord and bless us.

SPEAKER_05 28:41

Oh God, you have made of all of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you. Bring the nations into your fold, pour out your spirit upon all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Let us bless the Lord. Thanks be to God.

SPEAKER_06 29:11

Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing. To the only God, our Savior be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all time, now and forever. The blessing of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you now and remain with you always. Amen.

SPEAKER_04 29:36

Amen.

SPEAKER_06 29:40

And that is morning prayer on this third Friday in Lent. Thank you for coming to pray today. Wherever you go, take that love of Jesus that lives inside of you in your heart. Share that Jesus with the world. Show that Jesus to the world. We all need Jesus now. Hope to see you back with us on Monday, safe and sound.