Morning Prayer for Friday 3.20.26

Our Saint of the day today is Cuthbert a Bishop who dies in 687. You can find our liturgy here: Morning Prayer 3.20.26, Cuthbert, Bishop, 687 | Daily Office Network

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:02

Good morning and welcome. I'm Father Tom Roy, the vicar of the Daily Office Network. 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. We have a news story at the top, and 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 20th of March, 2026. In the life of the church, our saint is Cuthbert, a bishop who died in the year 687. If you're looking for our podcast, search on Apple or Spotify and use the keywords Daily Office Network. There are also links here that will take you right to the podcast. That's an easy way to take this with you. Let's begin. If I speak in tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. Picture of a vending machine, and we can see a church's red door to the left there. There's a refrigerator and some other things. St. Joseph's Episcopal Church in downtown Durham, North Carolina is the newest site for a county public health department's vending machine that dispenses free naloxone, also known by its brand name as Narcan, to help make it more available throughout the community. Eloxone is a medication that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose and helps prevent deaths. The machine was installed near the church's red side door and next to a community fridge, a food pantry, and a period pantry that are already in place there. Those provide items that are donated by the community with a give what you can, take what you need philosophy. Pray for all of those who are in need of these resources. It's nice that they are there. 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, after which I'll ask Mother Angel to pronounce absolution, and Addie to lead us in the invitatory and the Psalter. First, the general confession. 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 you've 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 and our mouths shall proclaim your praise.

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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. 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 psalms. For you are a great God, you are great above all gods. In your hand 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 the 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 we hearken to your voice. Hearten not your hearts as your forebears did in the wilderness and Mira. And on that day at Massa, 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 wavering in their hearts, they do not know my ways. So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest.

SPEAKER_05 5:27

I'm going to ask Jill and Martha to lead our psalm. Jill, would you start?

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Lord, hear my prayer and let my cry come before you. Hide not your face from me in the day of my trouble.

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Incline your ear to me. When I call, make haste to answer me.

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For my days drift away like smoke, and my bones are hot as burning coals.

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My heart is smitten like grass and wither, so that I forget to eat my bread.

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Because of the voice of my groaning, I am but skin and bones.

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I have become like a vulture in the wilderness, like an owl among the ruins.

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I lie awake and groan. I am like a sparrow, lonely on a housetop.

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Enemies revile me all day long, and those who scoff at me have taken an oath against me.

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For I have eaten ashes for bread and mingled my drink with weeping.

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Because of your indignation and wrath, you have lifted me up and thrown me away.

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My days pass away like a shadow, and I wither like the grass. You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to have mercy upon it. Indeed, the appointed time has come.

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For your servant's sake is very robbable, and I will move to pity even for his thoughts.

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The nations shall fear your name, O Lord, and all the kings of the earth your glory.

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For you, O Lord, will be love Zion, and your glory will appear.

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You will look with favor on the prayer of the homeless. You will not despise their plea.

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So that a people yet on born may praise the Lord.

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For the Lord looked down from the holy place on high and from the heavens beheld the earth.

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To tear the grown of the captives and to set free those condemned to die.

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That they may declare in Zion the name of the Lord and the praise of our God in Jerusalem.

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Let the peoples be gathered together, and the rams also to serve the Lord.

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The Lord has brought down my strength before my time and shortened the number of my days.

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And I said, Oh my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days. Your years in you throughout all generations.

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In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

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Excluding you will change them, and they shall be changed.

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But you are always the same, and your years will never end.

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Children of your servants shall continue, and their all springs shall stand fast in your sight.

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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.

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Amen.

SPEAKER_05 9:56

Thank you, Jill and Martha. That was a great reading. Our first reading is from Exodus chapter two, verses one through twenty to Chad, would you lead this?

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Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and plastered it with and plastered it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. Her sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and while her attendants walked beside the river, she saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her maid to bring it. And when she opened it she saw the child, and he was crying, and she took pity on him. This must be one of the Hebrew's children, she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you? Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Yes. So the girl went and collected the child's mother. Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and nursed it, and when the child grew up she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, because she said, I drew him out of the water. One day after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinfolk. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the next day he saw two Hebrews fighting, and he said to the one who was in the wrong, Why did you strike your fellow Hebrew? He answered, Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid and thought, Surely the thing is known. When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian and sat down by a well. The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. But some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses got up and came to their defense and watered their flock. When they returned to their father, Rahuel, he said, How is it that you came back so soon today? They said, An Egyptian helped us against the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock. He said to his daughters, Where is he? Why did you leave the man? Invite him to break bread. Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. She bore a son, and she named him Gersham, for she said, for he said, I have been an alien residing in a foreign land. The word of the Lord.

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

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God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of all the righteous offspring. You made the heavens and the earth with all the everstorm. 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. Oh 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 sin, 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_05 16:24

See a guy with an apron on working on a cymbal. If your symbol clangs, take it to the repair shop. If your soul clangs, take it to Jesus. Paul, would you lead this?

SPEAKER_02 16:53

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret but strive for the greater gifts, and I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, and if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. The word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_05 18:27

That was a great reading. Our next canticle is a song to the lamb. Mother Unjell.

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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 sit 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 to Lord our God.

SPEAKER_05 19:36

Thank you, Mother Angel. This looks like a depiction of transfiguration. It actually is. This is by Lorenzo Lotto from fifteen ten. Transfiguration. Deacon Diana, would you lead this?

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Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves, and he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, This is my son, the beloved. Listen to him. Suddenly, when they looked around, they saw no one with them anymore, but only Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean. Then they asked him, Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? He said to them, Elijah is indeed coming first to restore all things. How then is it written about the Son of Man that he is to go through many sufferings and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did not and they and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written about him. The word of the Lord.

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Thank you, Deacon. And now the Apostles' Creed. Michael Brown, would you lead us in the creed?

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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. He is seated at the right hand of the Father. And 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.

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Amen. Thank you, Michael. And now the prayers begin with our Lord's Prayer. Kara, 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 it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. 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.

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Thank you, Kara. Our saint of the day is Cuspert. This is a stained glass window depicting Cuspert. St. Cuspert's window at St. Michael's in Workington, England. He was the most popular saint of pre-conquest England. On receiving a vision of St. Aidan's death, he entered the religious life, was nurtured in the uh Stewart traditions of Celtic monasticism. He became the prior of Melrose Abbey, and then of Linden's Farn, as well as Bishop of Hexham. Like Hilda, he accepted the decisions of the Synod of Whitby favoring the Roman liturgy over the Celtic for the sake of the church unity, though millions have regretted it ever since. Canterbury was Roman, and the church did not need factions in the British Isles. So it is up to us to preserve the unique and earthly spirituality of the Celts and their preference for the poor over the institutional church. Saint Cuspert, our saint of the day. And now three prayers: the collect of the day for Cuspert, the bishop, who died in 687, a collect for Friday in the fourth week of Lent, and a collect for Fridays. Deacon Elizabeth, would you lead these three prayers?

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Sure. Merciful God, you call Cutbat from following the flock to be a shepherd of your people. Mercifully grant that we also may go without fear to dangerous and remote places to seek the indifferent and the lost through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. Our God, you have given us the good news of your abounding love in your Son Jesus Christ. So fill our hearts with thankfulness that we may rejoice to proclaim the good tidings we have received through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. Almighty God, whose most dear son were not up to joy, but first he suffered pain and ended 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.

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Amen. We'll continue with the prayer for the mission of the church. I'm going to ask Robert to lead this, and then I'll bless the Lord and bless us.

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Oh God, you have made 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.

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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. And the blessing of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you now and remain with you always. Amen. And that is morning prayer on this Friday. Thank you for coming to pray today. Wherever you go, take that love of Jesus that lives inside of you. Share that Jesus with the world. Show that Jesus to the world. How many need to see that Jesus in you? Hope to see you back with us safe and sound on Monday.