Morning Prayer with Daily Office Network Live Community
We are a community of Christians who meet online for morning prayer. This gathering is hosted by Father Tom Roy, the Vicar of the Daily Office Network. It is attended by people from the United States and around the world. We have live prayer M-F at "Dailyoffice.wordpress.com" We have been presenting Morning Prayer online since 2006. All are welcome here.
Morning Prayer with Daily Office Network Live Community
Morning Prayer for Thursday May 7th 2026!
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Good morning and welcome. I'm Father Tom Roy, the vicar of the Daily Office Network. I'm an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church in Minnesota. And the Daily Office Network is a community of Christians who gather together on a daily basis Monday through Friday to pray morning prayer at 7 and 9 a.m. Eastern time. We come from several different faith traditions in several different countries. We do our best to exercise tolerance and decency here with one another. Let's begin morning prayer. Today is May the 7th, 2026. It's Thursday in the fifth week of Easter. If you're looking for our podcast, search Daily Office Network as your keywords on Apple or Spotify, or click on one of the links on our homepage. Let's begin. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. Photograph of the Book of Common Prayer. The Book of Common Prayer is drawing Gen Z to the Anglican and Episcopal tradition. The BCP is the primary liturgical resource of the Episcopal Church. It was last revised in 1979. The prayer book's preservation of church history, communication of episcopal theology, and evolution as a symbol of unity, draws Gen Z seekers interested in an inclusive Christian community grounded in tradition. Joyce Chang, a 23-year-old student at Harvard Divinity School, wandered into the nearby Grace Church in New York City when she was in college at New York University. It was right by her dorm building. I remember being astounded by all the architecture and the stained glass windows and then seeing the choir and the clergy process down the aisle. Ching said, I was like, oh, and there's this woman here who has blue hair and she's a priest. Ching grew up around evangelical Christians in Saratoga County, New York, and found the inclusion of women and LGBTQ people in leadership a primary reason for joining the Episcopal Church. The balance between inclusivity and the embrace of the Anglican tradition through liturgy is what she said she believes keeps young people coming back each Sunday. Collective identity is centered around the prayer book. Episcopalians pray the same words that they have been prayed for centuries. She said, tradition is important to people, Cheng said. The idea of believing in God and something bigger than yourself, feeling like we're not a singular point in the world. I have to agree with her. On this day the Lord has acted, we will rejoice and be glad in it. Addie, would you lead us in the invitatory and the Psalter this morning?
SPEAKER_03Lord, open our lips.
SPEAKER_05And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.
SPEAKER_03Glory 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. Hallelujah. Christ our Passover. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. The death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So also consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God and Jesus Christ our Lord. Hallelujah. Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruit of those who have fallen asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall also in Christ shall all be made alive. Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_05Thank you, Addie, for starting us off. Our psalm appointed for this morning is Psalm number 71. And I'm going to ask Martha and Jill to lead our psalm. Martha, would you start?
SPEAKER_12In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge. Let me never be ashamed.
SPEAKER_07In your righteousness, deliver me and set me free. Incline your ear to me and save me.
SPEAKER_12Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe. You are my crowd and my stronghold.
SPEAKER_07Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the clutches of the evildoer and the oppressor.
SPEAKER_12For you are my God. My confidence since I was young.
SPEAKER_07I have been sustained by you ever since I was born. From my mother's womb, you have been my strength. My praise shall be always of you.
SPEAKER_12I have become a put unto many. But you are my refuge and my strength.
SPEAKER_07Let my mouth be full of your praise. Move it up, please. Sorry. And your glory all the day long.
SPEAKER_12Do not cast me off in my old age. Forsake me not when my strength fails.
SPEAKER_07For my enemies are talking against me, and those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together.
SPEAKER_12That he will come after me and seize me. Because there is none who will save.
SPEAKER_07O God, be not far from me. Come quickly to help me, O my God.
SPEAKER_12At those who set themselves against me be put to shame and be disgraced. At those who seek to do me evil be covered with scorn and reproach.
SPEAKER_07But I shall always wait in patience and shall praise you more and more.
SPEAKER_12My mouth shall recon your mighty acts and saving deeds all day long. Though I cannot know the number of them.
SPEAKER_07I will begin with the mighty works of the Lord God. I will recall your righteousness, yours alone.
SPEAKER_12Oh God, you have taught me since I was young. And to this day I tell of your wonderful works.
SPEAKER_07And now that I am old and grey-headed, O God, do not forsake me till I make known your strength to this generation and your power to all who are to come.
SPEAKER_12Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens. You have done great things. Who is like you, O God?
SPEAKER_07You have showed me great troubles and adversities, but you will restore my life and bring me up again from the deep places of the earth.
SPEAKER_12You strengthen me more and more. You fool and comfort me.
SPEAKER_07Therefore, I will praise you upon the lyre for your faithfulness, O my God. I will sing to you with the harp, O Holy One of Israel.
SPEAKER_12My lips will sing with joy when I play to you. And so will my soul, which you have redeemed.
SPEAKER_07My tongue will proclaim your righteousness all day long, for they are ashamed and disgraced, who sought to do me harm.
SPEAKER_12Glory 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.
SPEAKER_05Amen. Thank you, Jill and Martha. That was a great reading. Jill, it seems like you always get that verse of I am old and gray-headed, I'm not sure why. Here we see a crystal ball. See anything yet? Our reading is from Leviticus chapter 19, verses 26 through 37. Chad, would you lead this?
SPEAKER_00You shall not eat anything with its blood. You shall not practice augury or witchcraft. You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. You shall not make any gashes in your flesh for the dead, or tattoo any marks upon you. I am the Lord. Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, that the land not become prostituted and full of depravity. You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord. Do not turn to mediums or wizards, do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God. You shall rise before the aged and defer to the old, and you shall fear your God. I am the Lord. When an alien resides in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you. You shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. You shall not cheat in measuring length, weight, or quantity. You shall have honest balances, honest weights, an honest epha, and an honest end. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall keep all my statutes and my ordinances and observe them. I am the Lord.
SPEAKER_05Thanks be to God. Thank you, Chad. Our first canticle is a song of wisdom. Marcia, would you read this one for us?
SPEAKER_02Wisdom free from a nation of oppressors, a holy people and a blameless race. She entered the soul of a servant of the Lord, withstood dread rulers with wonders and signs. To the saints she gave the reward of their labours, and led them by a marvelous way. She was their shelter by day and a blaze of stars by night. She brought them across the Red Sea. She led them through mighty waters, but the enemies she swallowed them in the waves, and spilled them out from the depths of the abyss. And then, Lord, the righteous sang hymns to your name, and praised with one voice your protecting hand, for wisdom opened the mouths of the moot, and gave speech to the tongues of a newborn people.
SPEAKER_05Thank you, Marcia. Saint Timothy. Peter needed a lot of helpers to reach his goals. I'm sorry, Paul needed a lot of helpers to reach his goals as an evangelist. Many regard the much younger Timothy as the greatest of his assistants. Paul, would you lead this?
SPEAKER_08All Saval excuse me. Paul Sylvanus and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as is right because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith during all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God and is intended to make you worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are all suffering. For it is indeed just of God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to the afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be marveled at on the day among all who have believed, because our testimony to you has be was believed. To this end, we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and in you and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_05Thanks be to God. Thank you, Paul. Our next canical is a song of true motherhood. Jacqueline, would you lead this one?
SPEAKER_04God chose to be our mother in all things, and so made the foundation of his work, most humbly and most pure in the Virgin's womb. God, the perfect wisdom of all, arrayed himself in this humble place. Christ came in our poor flesh to share a mother's care. Our mothers bear us for pain and for death. Our true mother Jesus bears us for joy and endless life. Christ carried us within him in love and travail until the full time of his passion. And when all of this was completed, and he had carried us so for joy, still all this could not satisfy the power of his wonderful love. All that we owe is redeemed in truly loving God. For the love of Christ works in us.
SPEAKER_05Deacon Elizabeth, would you lead this?
SPEAKER_11Sure. Jesus said, Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or what you'll drink, or about the body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into bands, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet, I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the gross of the field, the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith? Therefore, do not worry, saying, What will we eat, or what will we drink, or what will we wear? For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things. And indeed, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things, but strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today. The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_05Thanks be to God. Thank you, Deacon. Indeed, today's trouble is enough for today. And now the Apostles' Creed. John, would you lead this?
SPEAKER_06I 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.
SPEAKER_05Amen. Thank you, John. And now the prayers begin with our Lord's Prayer. Patricia, would you lead us in the Lord's Prayer and then we'll read the suffrages?
SPEAKER_10The Lord be with you and also with you. 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.
SPEAKER_05Save your people, Lord, and bless your inheritance.
SPEAKER_10Govern and uphold them now and always.
SPEAKER_05Day by day we bless you.
SPEAKER_10We praise your name forever.
SPEAKER_05Lord, keep us from all sin today.
SPEAKER_10Have mercy on us, Lord. Have mercy.
SPEAKER_05Lord, show us your love and mercy.
SPEAKER_10For we put our trust in you.
SPEAKER_05In you, Lord, is our hope.
SPEAKER_10And we shall never hope in vain.
SPEAKER_05Thank you, Patricia. Our congregant Beth Spell from our later service has a new great grandchild. Her name is Alice. And this is Alice. On a Winnie the Pooh blanket. And wearing Winnie the Pooh clothes too, by the way. Now two prayers, the collect of the day for the fifth Sunday of Easter and a collect for guidance. Morgan, would you lead us in these two prayers?
SPEAKER_01Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life, grant us so perfectly to know your Son, Jesus Christ, to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life. Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our beings. We humbly pray you so to guide and govern us by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our life we may not forget you, but may remember that we are ever walking in your sight through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
SPEAKER_05Amen.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Morgan.
SPEAKER_05And now it's time to report on America's gun toll. A look at how many people got shot or injured, killed in our country in the last week. This is as of Monday the 4th, is when we pull the statistics. And our spotlight's got several pictures this time. It takes us to Amarillo, Texas. And this was the scene in Amarillo this past weekend. A 16 and a 17-year-old were killed at a shooting at a house party at a West Amarillo, Texas apartment complex early Saturday morning or early Saturday night. Ten of the other teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 were also injured by gunfire. So two were killed and 10 were injured. The shooting happened at 2 a.m. And a reporter who lives about a block away said that they heard the shooting and it sounded like someone was using a machine gun. No one is in custody, and police believe that there are at least two shooters. A very common story that we seem to hear a lot when we spotlight and look at some of these mass shootings. We look at our totals from this last week, and those killed by gunfire in the United States, that went up considerably. It went up 71 people or killed. It brings our total year-to-date kill to 4,215. And those injured in the United States by gunfire, that also went up 471. It was 437 the week before. And it brings our total year-to-date injured to 7,392. And so we pray a prayer to end gun violence. Oh Lord our God, we pray for the victims of the other pandemic as gun violence ravages our homes, our streets, our businesses, our schools, even our houses of worship. We pray for the children who are killed and injured. We pray for their families, their classmates, their teachers and school employees. We pray for the teenagers who are gunned down before their lives have really even started. And we pray for police officers who keep fighting a never-ending battle while trying to keep themselves and everyone else safe. We pray for an end to racial profiling and law enforcement. We pray for all of those who are depressed or mentally ill, wanting to hurt themselves or others in a nation where guns are everywhere. And we pray for the victims of crime who are forced to defend themselves and their loved ones. We pray for anti-violence activists and community leaders in a time when new methods of protest and reform must be created. Let your demands for justice and your cries for peace be heard, O Lord, in our legislative chambers and in our hearts, and may your healing grace overtake this land through our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We'll continue with the prayer for the mission of the church. I'm going to ask Michael Brown to lead this, and then I'll bless the Lord and bless us.
SPEAKER_09Almighty God. You sent your Son Jesus Christ to reconcile the world to yourself. We praise and bless you for those whom you have sent in the power of the Spirit to preach the gospel to all nations. We thank you that in all parts of the earth the community of love has been gathered together by their prayers and labors. And that in every place your servants call upon your name. Let us bless the Lord. Alleluia, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_05Thanks be to God, alleluia, alleluia. Now go in safety, for you cannot go where God is not. Go in love, for love alone endures, and go in peace, for that is God's gift to those whose hearts and minds are in his Son Jesus. And God's blessing be with you. Christ's peace be with you. The Spirit's outpouring be with you now and always. Amen.
SPEAKER_08Amen.
SPEAKER_05And that is morning prayer on this Thursday. Thank you for coming to pray today. Wherever you go, take that love of Jesus that lives inside of you. That Jesus you carry in your heart. Share that Jesus with the world. Show that Jesus to the world. Hope to see you back with us tomorrow, safe and sound.