The Holy Eucharist The First Sunday in Lent March 1, 2020 • 11:15 AM Washington National Cathedral Worship lies at the heart of the Christian life. It is in worship that we express our theology and define our identity. It is through encountering God within worship that we are formed and transformed as the people of God. One of the glories of the Episcopal Church is its liturgical worship. Liturgy refers to the patterns, forms, words, and actions through which public worship is conducted. The people’s responses are in bold. This type of note, offering directions about the service is called a “rubric,” which comes from the Latin word rubrica (red)—referring to a time when these instructional notes were always written in red. The Entrance Rite When the service is accompanied by music, it often begins with an instrumental piece of music, during which the congregation can prepare for worship. prelude Prelude from Symphony I, Op. 14 Louis Vierne (1870-1937) introit Call to remembrance Richard Farrant (ca. 1525-1580) Call to remembrance, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindness, which hath been ever of old, O remember not the sins and offenses of my youth: but according to thy mercy think thou on me, O Lord, for thy goodness. (Psalm 25:5-6) At the ringing of the bells, the people stand as able as the procession enters in silence. opening acclamation Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins. God’s mercy endures for ever. the invitation to a holy lent Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith. I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repen- tance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer. The people may kneel or be seated. the litany of penitence The people sing their responses. Michael McCarthy (b. 1966) Most holy and merciful God: We confess to you and to one another, and to the whole communion of saints in heaven and on earth, that we have sinned by our own fault in thought, word, and deed; by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven. We have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ served us. We have not been true to the mind of Christ. We have grieved your Holy Spirit. We confess to you. Have mercy on us. All our past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy and impatience of our lives, we confess to you. Have mercy on us. Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other people, we confess to you. Have mercy on us. Our anger at our own frustration and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves, we confess to you. Have mercy on us. Our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work, we confess to you. Have mercy on us. Our negligence in prayer and worship, and our failure to commend the faith that is in us, we confess to you. Have mercy on us. Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done: for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty. For all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors, and for our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us, have mercy on us. Accept our repentance, O Lord. For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us, have mercy on us. Accept our repentance, O Lord. Restore us, good Lord, and let your anger depart from us. 2 Accomplish in us the work of your salvation, By the cross and passion of your Son our Lord, kyrie eleison Silence is kept. The presider offers the declaration of forgiveness, and the people respond, Amen. The Word of God the collect for the first sunday in lent The Collect is the prayer appointed for each Sunday that “collects” or captures the theme of the day or season of the Church year. It summarizes the attributes of God as revealed in the scriptures for the day. The Lord be with you. And also with you. Let us pray. Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. The people are seated. 3 the first reading Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 This reading is typically from the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures) which Jesus knew and from which he often referred or quoted. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. psalm 32:1-7 plainchant, Tone III The psalms are prayers that Jesus used and cover every mood of humanity’s relationship with God and one another. The choir introduces the refrain, then all repeat. The choir sings the psalm. Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sin is put away! Happy are they to whom the Lord imputes no guilt, and in whose spirit there is no guile! All repeat the refrain. While I held my tongue, my bones withered away, because of my groaning all day long. For your hand was heavy upon me day and night; my moisture was dried up as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and did not conceal my guilt. All repeat the refrain. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” Then you forgave me the guilt of my sin. Therefore all the faithful will make their prayers to you in time of trouble; when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach them. All repeat the refrain. 4 the second reading Romans 5:12-19 This reading, taken from the New Testament, is typically from a letter (epistle) to the early Church, the Acts of the Apostles, or the Revelation to John. Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned—sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.