OPENING SENTENCES

I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel; my heart teaches me, night after night. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not fall. Psalm 16:7, 8

CONFESSION OF SIN

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you 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; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.

Evening Examen: What was the most draining part of my day? What was the most life-giving part of my day? Let God guide you as you reflect on your day by asking him for light, grace, and gratitude.

O God, make speed to save us. *
O Lord, make haste to help us.

EVENING PSALM

Psalm 74

O God, why have you utterly cast us off? *
why is your wrath so hot against the sheep of your pasture?

Remember your congregation that you purchased long ago, *
the tribe you redeemed to be your inheritance,
and Mount Zion where you dwell.

Turn your steps toward the endless ruins; *
the enemy has laid waste everything in your sanctuary.

Your adversaries roared in your holy place; *
they set up their banners as tokens of victory.

They were like men coming up with axes to a grove of trees; *
they broke down all your carved work with hatchets
and hammers.

They set fire to your holy place; *
they defiled the dwelling-place of your Name
and razed it to the ground.

They said to themselves, "Let us destroy them altogether." *
They burned down all the meeting-places of God
in the land.

There are no signs for us to see;
there is no prophet left; *
there is not one among us who knows how long.

How long, O God, will the adversary scoff? *
will the enemy blaspheme your Name for ever?

Why do you draw back your hand? *
why is your right hand hidden in your bosom?

Yet God is my King from ancient times, *
victorious in the midst of the earth.

You divided the sea by your might *
and shattered the heads of the dragons upon the waters;

You crushed the heads of Leviathan *
and gave him to the people of the desert for food.

You split open spring and torrent; *
you dried up ever-flowing rivers.

Yours is the day, yours also the night; *
you established the moon and the sun.

You fixed all the boundaries of the earth; *
you made both summer and winter.

Remember, O LORD, how the enemy scoffed, *
how a foolish people despised your Name.

Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts; *
never forget the lives of your poor.

Look upon your covenant; *
the dark places of the earth are haunts of violence.

Let not the oppressed turn away ashamed; *
let the poor and needy praise your Name.

Arise, O God, maintain your cause; *
remember how fools revile you all day long.

Forget not the clamor of your adversaries, *
the unending tumult of those who rise up against you.

Lord our God, remember the covenant sealed with the blood of your Son. Make the Church your spiritual house and make us living stones built upon Christ, so that a full and true temple may be raised to your glory; for the sake of your son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

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.

EVENING SONG

For the Beauty of the Earth - Midwestern Hymnal

EVENING LESSONS

Leviticus 19:26-37

You 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 with you 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 ephah, and an honest hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and observe them: I am the Lord.

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12

Paul, Silvanus, 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 everyone 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 also 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 that day among all who have believed, because our testimony to you 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 you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

In the evening, pray for:

peace
individuals and their needs

Conclude with the Lord's Prayer and/or the following Collect for the Fifth Week of Easter:

Almighty 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, for ever and ever. Amen.

Let us bless the Lord. *
Thanks be to God!

The Almighty and merciful Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, bless us and keep us. Amen.