Podcast: Play in new window
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More
Preparation
O God, make speed to save us.
O Lord, make haste to help us.
If I climb up to heaven, you are there;
if I make the grave my bed, you are there also.
Praise
God of glory,
by the raising of your Son
you have broken the chains of death and hell:
fill your Church with faith and hope;
for a new day has dawned
and the way to life stands open
in our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Psalm 118:1–4, 14–21
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his mercy endures for ever.
Let Israel now proclaim,
‘His mercy endures for ever.’
Let the house of Aaron now proclaim,
‘His mercy endures for ever.’
Let those who fear the Lord proclaim,
‘His mercy endures for ever.’
The Lord is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.
Joyful shouts of salvation
sound from the tents of the righteous:
‘The right hand of the Lord does mighty deeds;
the right hand of the Lord raises up;
the right hand of the Lord does mighty deeds.’
I shall not die, but live
and declare the works of the Lord.
The Lord has punished me sorely,
but he has not given me over to death.
Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through it.
I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
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.
Reading
After Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.
After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.
Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.
Mark 16:9–15 (NRSV)
This is the word of the Lord.
Prayers
Father and lover of humankind, we thank you for the revelation of the glory of your love for us. Give your grace to the Church: that in every place it may witness to you love for the world, by its life and prayer and service. We ask you to bless the Church in our diocese, enable and empower its ministry to all.
Inspire with your Holy Wisdom all statemen and rulers and all whose decisions affect the lives of others: that they may exercise their authority and use their power with compassion and with due consideration for the needs and rights of all. Give them moral courage and integrity: that all things may be ordered according to your will.
We pray for our own Christian community. Grant us the courage and the generosity to seek your will and to do it: that through obedience and with a single eye to your glory, we may come to the fullness of life in Christ our risen Lord and Saviour.
Hear us as we pray for all who suffer; the sick in mind and body, those in distress and darkness of Spirit. Make your presence known to them in all their fear, their loneliness and their affliction. And turn the hearts of those who impose their will on others by violence and cruelty.
Receive into your care and keeping all who have died: bring them out of darkness into the marvellous light of your kingdom.
So grant that we may glorify you in all that we are and do, and that the whole earth may live to the praise and glory of your Name.
Christ yesterday and today,
the beginning and the end,
Alpha and Omega,
all time belongs to you,
and all ages;
to you be glory and power
through every age and for ever.
Amen.
Gathering our prayers and praises into one,
let us pray with confidence as our Saviour has taught us
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory
for ever and ever.
Amen.
The Conclusion
May the risen Christ give us his peace.
Alleluia. Amen.