Morning Prayer
Traditional language
Contemporary language
Want to share your prayers? Post them on the Prayer Wall
4.58am on Tuesday 1 July 2025
View the service for yesterday | today | tomorrow
Please note: Daily Prayer provided by the official Church of England web site, © The Archbishops' Council of the Church of England, 2002-2004.
O Lord, open our lips
Alland our mouth shall
proclaim your praise.
The Acclamation of Christ at the Dawning of the Day (page 108) may replace the Preparation as the start of Morning Prayer on any occasion.
One or more of the following is said or sung:
One of these prayers of thanksgiving (page 109),
Blessed are you, Sovereign God, creator of all,
to you be glory and praise for ever.
You founded the earth in the beginning
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
In the fullness of time you made us in your image,
and in these last days you have spoken to us
in your Son Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.
As we rejoice in the gift of your presence among us
let the light of your love always shine in our hearts,
your Spirit ever renew our lives
and your praises ever be on our lips.
Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
AllBlessed be God for ever.
(or)
Blessed are you, creator of all,
to you be praise and glory for ever.
As your dawn renews the face of the earth
bringing light and life to all creation,
may we rejoice in this day you have made;
as we wake refreshed from the depths of sleep,
open our eyes to behold your presence
and strengthen our hands to do your will,
that the world may rejoice and give you praise.
Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
AllBlessed be God for ever.
after Lancelot Andrewes (1626)
or a suitable hymn,
or A Song of God’s Righteousness
1Bless the Lord, O my
soul, ♦
and all that is within me bless his holy name.
2Bless the Lord, O my
soul, ♦
and forget not all his benefits;
3Who forgives all your
sins ♦
and heals all your infirmities;
4Who redeems your life
from the Pit ♦
and crowns you with faithful love and compassion;
5Who satisfies you with
good things, ♦
so that your youth is renewed like an eagle’s.
6The Lord executes righteousness
♦
and judgement for all who are oppressed.
7He made his ways known
to Moses ♦
and his works to the children of Israel.
8The Lord has established
his throne in heaven, ♦
and his kingdom has dominion over all.
9Bless the Lord, you
angels of his, ♦
you mighty ones who do his bidding
and hearken to the voice of his word.
10Bless the Lord, all
you his hosts, ♦
you ministers of his who do his will.
11Bless the Lord, all
you works of his,
in all places of his dominion; ♦
bless the Lord, O my soul.
Psalm 103.1-7, 19-22
AllGlory 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.
This opening prayer may be said
The night has passed, and the day lies open before us;
let us pray with one heart and mind.
Silence is kept.
As we rejoice in the gift of this new day,
so may the light of your presence, O God,
set our hearts on fire with love for you;
now and for ever.
AllAmen.
The appointed psalmody is said.
Refrain: We have waited on your loving-kindness, O God.
1 Great is the Lord and highly to be praised, ♦
in the city of our God.
2 His holy mountain is fair and lifted high, ♦
the joy of all the earth.
3 On Mount Zion, the divine dwelling place, ♦
stands the city of the great king.
4 In her palaces God has shown himself ♦
to be a sure refuge. R
5 For behold, the kings of the earth assembled ♦
and swept forward together.
6 They saw, and were dumbfounded; ♦
dismayed, they fled in terror.
7 Trembling seized them there;
they writhed like a woman in labour, ♦
as when the east wind shatters the ships of Tarshish.
8 As we had heard, so have we seen
in the city of the Lord of hosts, the city of our God: ♦
God has established her for ever. R
9 We have waited on your loving-kindness, O God, ♦
in the midst of your temple.
10 As with your name, O God,
so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; ♦
your right hand is full of justice.
11 Let Mount Zion rejoice and the daughters of Judah be glad, ♦
because of your judgements, O Lord.
12 Walk about Zion and go round about her;
count all her towers; ♦
consider well her bulwarks; pass through her citadels,
13 That you may tell those who come after
that such is our God for ever and ever. ♦
It is he that shall be our guide for evermore.
Refrain: We have waited on your loving-kindness, O God.
Father of lights,
raise us with Christ to your eternal city,
that, with kings and nations,
we may wait in the midst of your temple
and see your glory for ever and ever.
Refrain: I trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever.
1 Why do you glory in evil, you tyrant, ♦
while the goodness of God endures continually?
2 You plot destruction, you deceiver; ♦
your tongue is like a sharpened razor.
3 You love evil rather than good, ♦
falsehood rather than the word of truth.
4 You love all words that hurt, ♦
O you deceitful tongue.
5 Therefore God shall utterly bring you down; ♦
he shall take you and pluck you out of your tent
and root you out of the land of the living.
6 The righteous shall see this and tremble; ♦
they shall laugh you to scorn, and say:
7 This is the one who did not take God for a refuge, ♦
but trusted in great riches and relied upon wickedness.
8 But I am like a spreading olive tree in the house of God; ♦
I trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever.
9 I will always give thanks to you for what you have done; ♦
I will hope in your name,
for your faithful ones delight in it.
Refrain: I trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever.
Faithful and steadfast God,
nourish your people in this wicked world,
and, through prayer and the Scriptures,
give us our daily bread;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Each psalm or group of psalms may end with
AllGlory 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.
If there are two Scripture readings, the first may be read here, or both may be read after the canticle.
Then Job answered:
Listen carefully to my words,
and let this be your consolation.
Bear with me, and I will speak;
then after I have spoken, mock on.
As for me, is my complaint addressed to mortals?
Why should I not be impatient?
Look at me, and be appalled,
and lay your hand upon your mouth.
When I think of it I am dismayed,
and shuddering seizes my flesh.
Why do the wicked live on,
reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
Their children are established in their presence,
and their offspring before their eyes.
Their houses are safe from fear,
and no rod of God is upon them.
Their bull breeds without fail;
their cow calves and never miscarries.
They send out their little ones like a flock,
and their children dance around.
They sing to the tambourine and the lyre,
and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
They spend their days in prosperity,
and in peace they go down to Sheol.
They say to God, Leave us alone!
We do not desire to know your ways.
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
And what profit do we get if we pray to him?
Is not their prosperity indeed their own achievement?
The plans of the wicked are repugnant to me.
How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
How often does calamity come upon them?
How often does God distribute pains in his anger?
How often are they like straw before the wind,
and like chaff that the storm carries away?
You say, God stores up their iniquity for their children.
Let it be paid back to them, so that they may know it.
Let their own eyes see their destruction,
and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
For what do they care for their household after them,
when the number of their months is cut off?
Will any teach God knowledge,
seeing that he judges those that are on high?
One dies in full prosperity,
being wholly at ease and secure,
his loins full of milk
and the marrow of his bones moist.
Another dies in bitterness of soul,
never having tasted of good.
They lie down alike in the dust,
and the worms cover them.
Oh, I know your thoughts,
and your schemes to wrong me.
For you say, Where is the house of the prince?
Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?
Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
and do you not accept their testimony,
that the wicked are spared on the day of calamity,
and are rescued on the day of wrath?
Who declares their way to their face,
and who repays them for what they have done?
When they are carried to the grave,
a watch is kept over their tomb.
The clods of the valley are sweet to them;
everyone will follow after,
and those who went before are innumerable.
How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.
A Song of Peace, or another suitable canticle, for example, number 26 (page 577), may be said
Refrain:
AllSpirit of God, teach us
your ways,
that we may walk in the paths of peace. Alleluia.
1Come, let us go up to
the mountain of God, ♦
to the house of the God of Jacob;
2That God may teach us
his ways, ♦
and that we may walk in his paths.
3For the law shall go
out from Zion, ♦
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4God shall judge between
the nations, ♦
and shall mediate for many peoples.
5They shall beat their
swords into ploughshares, ♦
and their spears into pruning hooks.
6Nation shall not lift
up sword against nation, ♦
neither shall they learn war any more.
7O people of Jacob, come:
♦
let us walk in the light of the Lord.
Isaiah 2.3-5
AllGlory 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.
AllSpirit of God, teach us
your ways,
that we may walk in the paths of peace. Alleluia.
One or more readings appointed for the day are read.
The reading(s) may be followed by a time of silence.
You will say to me then, Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?
But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is moulded say to the one who moulds it, Why have you made me like this?
Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use?
What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction;
and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for gloryincluding us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
As indeed he says in Hosea,
Those who were not my people I will call my people,
and her who was not beloved I will call beloved.
And in the very place where it was said to them, You are not my people,
there they shall be called children of the living God.
And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved;
for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.
And as Isaiah predicted,
If the Lord of hosts had not left survivors to us,
we would have fared like Sodom
and been made like Gomorrah.
What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith;
but Israel, who did strive for the righteousness that is based on the law, did not succeed in fulfilling that law.
Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling-stone,
as it is written,
See, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.
A suitable song or chant, or a responsory in this or another form, may follow
Open my eyes, O Lord
that I may see the wonders of your law.
AllOpen my eyes, O Lord
that I may see the wonders of your law.
Lead me in the path of your commandments
Allthat I may see the wonders
of your law.
Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit.
AllOpen my eyes, O Lord
that I may see the wonders of your law.
from Psalm 119
The Benedictus (The Song of Zechariah)
is normally said,
or The Song of Christ's Glory (page
619) may be said
Refrain:
AllIn
your tender compassion, O God,
the dawn from on high shall break upon us.
1Blessed be the Lord
the God of Israel, ♦
who has come to his people and set them free.
2He has raised up for
us a mighty Saviour, ♦
born of the house of his servant David.
3Through his holy prophets
God promised of old ♦
to save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all that hate us,
4To show mercy to our
ancestors, ♦
and to remember his holy covenant.
5This was the oath God
swore to our father Abraham: ♦
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
6Free to worship him
without fear, ♦
holy and righteous in his sight
all the days of our life.
7And you, child, shall
be called the prophet of the Most High, ♦
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
8To give his people knowledge
of salvation ♦
by the forgiveness of all their sins.
9In the tender compassion
of our God ♦
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
10To shine on those who
dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, ♦
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Luke 1.68-79
AllGlory 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.
Refrain:
AllIn
your tender compassion, O God,
the dawn from on high shall break upon us.
Intercessions are offered
¶ for the day and its tasks
¶ for the world and its needs
¶ for the Church and her life
Prayers may include the following concerns from the cycle on pages 362–363
¶ All who are sick in body, mind or spirit
¶ Those in the midst of famine or disaster
¶ Victims of abuse and violence, intolerance
and prejudice
¶ Those who are bereaved
¶ All who work in the medical and healing professions
One of the forms of prayer found on pages 362–371 may be used.
These responses may be used
Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer
(or)
Lord, hear us.
Lord, graciously hear us.
Silence may be kept.
The Collect of the day is said
Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.
Grant this for your only Son Jesus Christ's sake,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
AllAmen.
The Lord’s Prayer is said
As our Saviour taught us, so we pray
AllOur Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen.
(or)
Let us pray with confidence as our Saviour has taught us
AllOur 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 Lord bless us, and preserve us from all evil,
and keep us in eternal life.
AllAmen.
Let us bless the Lord. Alleluia, alleluia.
AllThanks be to God. Alleluia, alleluia.
©
The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England, 2000–2005
Official Common Worship apps, books and eBooks are available from
Church House Publishing.
The Bible readings (other than the psalms) are from The New Revised Standard Version Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Implemented by Simon Kershaw at
Crucix.
Implementation copyright © Simon Kershaw, 2002–2021.
After Sunday is a registered charity, number 1128086. Website development by Hiltonian Media.