Daily Offices

Thursday April 18 - Morning
Thursday April 18 - Evening

How to pray the Daily Office using the New Zealand Prayerbook

A New Zealand Prayer Book Online Edition

2023-2024 Lectionary Year B [PDF]

Thursday April 18 - Morning

Recommended liturgies
pp80-82 or pp123-125

The readings are those set for Morning Prayer for April 18.

Psalm 136
Exodus 25:1-22
Luke 1:57-end
Collect

Psalm 136

¹ Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
 His love endures forever.
² Give thanks to the God of gods.
 His love endures forever.
³ Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
 His love endures forever.

⁴ to him who alone does great wonders,
 His love endures forever.
⁵ who by his understanding made the heavens,
 His love endures forever.
⁶ who spread out the earth upon the waters,
 His love endures forever.
⁷ who made the great lights—
 His love endures forever.
⁸ the sun to govern the day,
 His love endures forever.
⁹ the moon and stars to govern the night;
 His love endures forever.

¹⁰ to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt
 His love endures forever.
¹¹ and brought Israel out from among them
 His love endures forever.
¹² with a mighty hand and outstretched arm;
 His love endures forever.

¹³ to him who divided the Red Sea asunder
 His love endures forever.
¹⁴ and brought Israel through the midst of it,
 His love endures forever.
¹⁵ but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea;
 His love endures forever.

¹⁶ to him who led his people through the wilderness;
 His love endures forever.

¹⁷ to him who struck down great kings,
 His love endures forever.
¹⁸ and killed mighty kings—
 His love endures forever.
¹⁹ Sihon king of the Amorites
 His love endures forever.
²⁰ and Og king of Bashan—
 His love endures forever.
²¹ and gave their land as an inheritance,
 His love endures forever.
²² an inheritance to his servant Israel.
 His love endures forever.

²³ He remembered us in our low estate
 His love endures forever.
²⁴ and freed us from our enemies.
 His love endures forever.
²⁵ He gives food to every creature.
 His love endures forever.

²⁶ Give thanks to the God of heaven.
 His love endures forever.

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.

Exodus 25:1-22

¹ The Lord said to Moses, ² “Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give. ³ These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and bronze; ⁴ blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ⁵ ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood; ⁶ olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; ⁷ and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.

⁸ “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. ⁹ Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.

¹⁰ “Have them make an ark of acacia wood—two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. ¹¹ Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. ¹² Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. ¹³ Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. ¹⁴ Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry it. ¹⁵ The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed. ¹⁶ Then put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law, which I will give you.

¹⁷ “Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. ¹⁸ And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. ¹⁹ Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. ²⁰ The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. ²¹ Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law that I will give you. ²² There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.

Luke 1:57-end

⁵⁷ When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. ⁵⁸ Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.

⁵⁹ On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, ⁶⁰ but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.”

⁶¹ They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.”

⁶² Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. ⁶³ He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” ⁶⁴ Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God. ⁶⁵ All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. ^{66 Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him.}

⁶⁷ His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:

⁶⁸ “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
 because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
⁶⁹ He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
 in the house of his servant David
⁷⁰ (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
 ⁷¹ salvation from our enemies
 and from the hand of all who hate us—
⁷² to show mercy to our ancestors
 and to remember his holy covenant,
⁷³ the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
 ⁷⁴ to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
 and to enable us to serve him without fear
 ⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
⁷⁶ And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
 for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
⁷⁷ to give his people the knowledge of salvation
 through the forgiveness of their sins,
⁷⁸ because of the tender mercy of our God,
 by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
⁷⁹ to shine on those living in darkness
 and in the shadow of death,
 to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

⁸⁰ And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.

Collect

Lord, help us to see:
to see what is eternally good and true,
and having seen, to go on searching
until we come to the joys of heaven.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Thursday April 18 - Evening

Recommended liturgies
pp82-84 or pp126-128

The readings are those set for Evening Prayer for April 18.

Psalm 73
Deuteronomy 7:1-11
Ephesians 2:11-end
Collect

Psalm 73

¹ Surely God is good to Israel,
 to those who are pure in heart.

² But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
 I had nearly lost my foothold.
³ For I envied the arrogant
 when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴ They have no struggles;
 their bodies are healthy and strong.
⁵ They are free from common human burdens;
 they are not plagued by human ills.
⁶ Therefore pride is their necklace;
 they clothe themselves with violence.
⁷ From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
 their evil imaginations have no limits.
⁸ They scoff, and speak with malice;
 with arrogance they threaten oppression.
⁹ Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
 and their tongues take possession of the earth.
¹⁰ Therefore their people turn to them
 and drink up waters in abundance.
¹¹ They say, “How would God know?
 Does the Most High know anything?”

¹² This is what the wicked are like—
 always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.

¹³ Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
 and have washed my hands in innocence.
¹⁴ All day long I have been afflicted,
 and every morning brings new punishments.

¹⁵ If I had spoken out like that,
 I would have betrayed your children.
¹⁶ When I tried to understand all this,
 it troubled me deeply
¹⁷ till I entered the sanctuary of God;
 then I understood their final destiny.

¹⁸ Surely you place them on slippery ground;
 you cast them down to ruin.
¹⁹ How suddenly are they destroyed,
 completely swept away by terrors!
²⁰ They are like a dream when one awakes;
 when you arise, Lord,
 you will despise them as fantasies.

²¹ When my heart was grieved
 and my spirit embittered,
²² I was senseless and ignorant;
 I was a brute beast before you.

²³ Yet I am always with you;
 you hold me by my right hand.
²⁴ You guide me with your counsel,
 and afterward you will take me into glory.
²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?
 And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail,
 but God is the strength of my heart
 and my portion forever.

²⁷ Those who are far from you will perish;
 you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
²⁸ But as for me, it is good to be near God.
 I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;
 I will tell of all your deeds.

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.

Deuteronomy 7:1-11

¹ When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— ² and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. ³ Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, ⁴ for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. ⁵ This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. ⁶ For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

⁷ The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. ⁸ But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. ¹⁰ But

those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction;
he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.

¹¹ Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.

Ephesians 2:11-end

¹¹ Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands) — ¹² remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, ¹⁵ by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. ¹⁷ He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

¹⁹ Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ²¹In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. ²² And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Collect

Lord, help us to see:
to see what is eternally good and true,
and having seen, to go on searching
until we come to the joys of heaven.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.