It has become a common thing to say the first part of the service in a natural voice, and for the organ not to be heard until "O Lord, open Thou our lips"; and for the last prayers also to be said without any intrusion of music. This is not a fad, but a careful following out of the purpose of the office as shown in its history.
Again, the clergy frequently omit some of the first part of the service, and change the last part, substituting other prayers. We have seen the reason for this.
The central part is the actual office, the first part being an introduction and the last a supplement. There is a demand nowadays for more variety in our services. This is best met by exercising freedom in the opening and closing parts and keeping the middle, which is practically all from the Bible , untouched. We shall then not be departing from that service which, in all essentials, the Church has used from the beginning.
Lord's Prayer, Versicles, Responses. From old services. Psalms and Lessons. As in old services, but made more varied and much longer. Nunc Dimittis. First collect. As in old services. Second collect. Third collect. We begin on a low note of penitence, because we arc not worthy to approach the Most High God in worship until we have washed our feet, so to speak, and received that cleansing from daily defilement which Christ alone can give.
As a further preparation we say Christ's own prayer. Next the organ sounds, and we begin the work for which we have come to church, that of praising God. It is indeed wonderful to think that He in the glory of heaven should want our poor human worship, yet Jesus has assured us that this is so.
For "the Father seeketh such to worship Him in spirit and in truth. We answer that we will—"The Lord's Name be praised. We proceed with the psalms. They are precious and holy to us because they formed our Lord's hymn-book, and can never be superseded. As centuries of Church life have proved, they have a message for every mood and need. Yet they come from the Old Testament, not the New, and so we end each with the Christian Doxology to show that we interpret it in a Christian sense.
An Old Testament lesson follows. Note that we are still in the Old Testament. Sometimes we cannot get much help from the lesson and wonder why it is read. Well, the Old Testament shows how God prepared the way for Christ. He never left Himself without witness, but compared with us, who have Christ the Light of the world, the Hebrews of old were walking in twilight. The wonder is not that they failed so often, but that on the whole they succeeded so well. Each Evensong brings before us God's plan of salvation.
We begin with the Old Testament, which looks forward to Christ. Next comes the Magnificat , which links the two Testaments. It is the splendid song of the Blessed Virgin Mary before Jesus was born, and has been adopted by the Church as the great hymn of the Incarnation, in which God on high stooped so low.
Let us always remember this in singing the Magnificat —that we are celebrating God's coming to earth. After this the second lesson is read, from which we learn about Christ's life on earth, or else how His Spirit worked in the first disciples. With our minds fixed on Christ and all He means to us, we join the aged Simeon in his hymn of praise: "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace.
We now pause and see how far we have got. After the penitential introduction we began with the Old Testament, went on to watch our Lord's coming, gave thanks for it, learned much—if we have been attentive—of God's ways with men. Now we stand and say the Creed together. This is the Church's summary of the truths we have been learning about.
It is the custom to face the same way as we recite the Creed. This is our belief, for which we will live and, if need be, die. The service draws to an end with the versicles, responses, and prayers. Before we start on this part there is a valuable incident which we are apt to miss. The priest turns and says, "The Lord be with you," and we answer, "And with thy spirit. Priest and people each need the other's goodwill and prayers. One last thought. The collect for the week is also found in the Communion Service.
It brings the office into relation with the greatest service of all, and recalls our Sunday morning Communion. Can we improve on this service? A little, perhaps, but very little. One or two details, especially in connection with the opening and closing prayers, or with the choice of psalms and lessons, might be arranged rather better, but in the main the service is well-nigh perfect.
It is solid food for grown men, and one of the greatest gifts which our part of the Church Catholic has to offer its sons.
The only respects in which it differs from Evensong are these: i The places of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis are taken by the Te Deum or Benedicite and Benedictus or Jubilate , and an invitation to worship, the Venite , specially suitable for the beginning of Sunday, is added; 2 the second and third collects are different.
The Venite and Te Deum were taken from the long night office beginning at midnight. The Benedicite came from the daybreak office, Lauds, in which it was ordered for Sunday; the Benedictus was also from Lauds. Of the two collects, that for peace was said at Lauds, and that for grace at Prime, the service which followed it immediately. The Benedicite , or Song of the Three Children, comes from a.
The First English Prayer-Book ordered its use in Lent, and although this direction is no longer given, the custom remains. The Benedictus , or Song of Zacharias at the naming of John the Baptist, comes with special force after the second lesson, from the New Testament, the whole of which is one long telling of the story how God has "visited and redeemed His people.
It is very old, and no one knows for certain who was the composer. A beautiful tradition says that two famous saints, Ambrose and Augustine, composed it together at Milan on the day when Augustine was baptized. But this story is not found until hundreds of years later, and is unlikely. Two Christian songs of even earlier date, the Gloria in Excelsis and the Sanctus of the Communion Service, seem to have been used by the composer, for phrases from these are found in the Te Deum.
The first thirteen verses are a hymn in honour of the Holy Trinity. Heaven and earth—angels in heaven, and on earth apostles, prophets, and martyrs—adore God. A vesper is an evening song. In the Roman Catholic Church vespers are a series of prayers that church officials and believers say together.
This word has had several meanings over time, but most are related to evening, which is when the prayers take place. Compline is read after the evening meal. Vespers is a sunset evening prayer service in the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran liturgies of the canonical hours. The word comes from the Greek? Matins during the night, at about 2 a.
Lauds or Dawn Prayer at dawn, about 5 a. Anyone perusing the daily schedule is instantly aware that central to every twenty-four hours , because formative, are the seven canonical hours : Matins with Lauds, Prime, Tierce, Sext, Nones, Vespers, and Compline. Last Updated: 12th March, Matins , the lengthiest, originally said at a night hour, is now appropriately said at any hour of the day.
Lauds and Vespers are the solemn morning and evening prayers of the church. Terce, Sext, and None correspond to the mid-morning, noon, and mid-afternoon hours. Agnes Catot Professional. What is the difference between vespers and evensong? As nouns the difference between evensong and vespers.
Clinton Petruss Professional. What is evensong service? Evensong is the common name for a Christian church service originating in the Anglican tradition as part of the reformed practice of the Daily Office or canonical hours.
The service may also be referred to as Evening Prayer, but Evensong is the more common name when the service is musical. Jerri Sharkey Professional. What are choral matins? Evening Prayer sung by a choir usually called ' choral Evensong' is particularly common. In such choral services, all of the service from the opening responses to the anthem, except the lessons from the Bible, is usually sung or chanted.
Veta Feltenberg Explainer. What is lauds and vespers? Vespers and lauds morning prayer are the oldest and most important of the traditional liturgy of the hours. Many scholars believe vespers is based on Judaic forms of prayer and point to a daily evening celebration observed among Jews in the 1st century bce.
Aamar Loslein Explainer. What is a morning prayer? From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Morning Prayer may refer to: Prayers in various traditions said during the morning. Lauds, a divine office that takes place in the early morning hours.
Azahara Rogalnikov Explainer. Does Evensong have communion? Shizuko Posse Pundit. Who has safely brought us to the beginning of this day? O Lord, our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day : Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that we, being ordered by thy governance, may do always what is righteous.
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