Morning Prayer, Rite Two for Saturday, March 01, 2025

March 01, 2025

Saturday In The Week Of 7 Epiphany

Isaiah 60:3

Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

Confession of Sin

Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor.

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.

Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life. Amen.

Invitatory and Psalter

Officiant: Lord, open our lips.
People: And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Alleluia.

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: Come let us adore him.

Psalm 95:1-7

Venite

Come, let us sing to the Lord; *

let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *

and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.

For the Lord is a great God, *

and a great King above all gods.

In his hand are the caverns of the earth, *

and the heights of the hills are his also.

The sea is his, for he made it, *

and his hands have molded the dry land.

Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, *

and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For he is our God,

and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. *

Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice!

The Psalm or Psalms Appointed

Psalm 137

By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, *

when we remembered you, O Zion.

As for our harps, we hung them up *

on the trees in the midst of that land.

For those who led us away captive asked us for a song,

and our oppressors called for mirth: *

"Sing us one of the songs of Zion."

How shall we sing the LORD'S song *

upon an alien soil?

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, *

let my right hand forget its skill.

Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth

if I do not remember you, *

if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.

Remember the day of Jerusalem, O LORD,

against the people of Edom, *

who said, "Down with it! down with it!

even to the ground!"

O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, *

happy the one who pays you back

for what you have done to us!

Happy shall he be who takes your little ones, *

and dashes them against the rock!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Psalm 144

Blessed be the LORD my rock! *

who trains my hands to fight and my fingers to battle;

My help and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, *

my shield in whom I trust,

who subdues the peoples under me.

O LORD, what are we that you should care for us? *

mere mortals that you should think of us?

We are like a puff of wind; *

our days are like a passing shadow.

Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down; *

touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.

Hurl the lightning and scatter them; *

shoot out your arrows and rout them.

Stretch out your hand from on high; *

rescue me and deliver me from the great waters,

from the hand of foreign peoples,

Whose mouths speak deceitfully *

and whose right hand is raised in falsehood.

O God, I will sing to you a new song; *

I will play to you on a ten-stringed lyre.

You give victory to kings *

and have rescued David your servant.

Rescue me from the hurtful sword *

and deliver me from the hand of foreign peoples,

Whose mouths speak deceitfully *

and whose right hand is raised in falsehood.

May our sons be like plants well nurtured from their youth, *

and our daughters like sculptured corners of a palace.

May our barns be filled to overflowing with all manner of crops; *

may the flocks in our pastures increase by thousands and tens of thousands;

may our cattle be fat and sleek.

May there be no breaching of the walls, no going into exile, *

no wailing in the public squares.

Happy are the people of whom this is so! *

happy are the people whose God is the LORD!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

The Lessons

Ruth 4:1-17

The Marriage of Boaz and Ruth

No sooner had Boaz gone up to the gate and sat down there than the next-of-kin, of whom Boaz had spoken, came passing by. So Boaz said, “Come over, friend; sit down here.” And he went over and sat down. Then Boaz took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, “Sit down here”; so they sat down. He then said to the next-of-kin, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our kinsman Elimelech. So I thought I would tell you of it, and say: Buy it in the presence of those sitting here, and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it; but if you will not, tell me, so that I may know; for there is no one prior to you to redeem it, and I come after you.” So he said, “I will redeem it.” Then Boaz said, “The day you acquire the field from the hand of Naomi, you are also acquiring Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead man, to maintain the dead man’s name on his inheritance.” At this, the next-of-kin said, “I cannot redeem it for myself without damaging my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”

Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging: to confirm a transaction, the one took off a sandal and gave it to the other; this was the manner of attesting in Israel. So when the next-of-kin said to Boaz, “Acquire it for yourself,” he took off his sandal. Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have acquired from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and Mahlon. I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, to be my wife, to maintain the dead man’s name on his inheritance, in order that the name of the dead may not be cut off from his kindred and from the gate of his native place; today you are witnesses.” Then all the people who were at the gate, along with the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you produce children in Ephrathah and bestow a name in Bethlehem; and, through the children that the Lord will give you by this young woman, may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”

The Genealogy of David

So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When they came together, the Lord made her conceive, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin; and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him.” Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom, and became his nurse. The women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed; he became the father of Jesse, the father of David.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.