Holy Saturday Morning Prayer

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Morning Prayer
Holy Saturday

Morning and Evening are two “hinges” of the day in the Church’s ritual prayer. Over the days of the Easter Triduum, a household may come together to pray Morning Prayer around breakfast time.

Begin by making the Sign of the Cross

Psalm

Psalm 64

If two or more people are praying together, then the stanzas of the psalm can be recited aloud alternately between two groups

Hear my voice, O God, as I complain,
guard my life from dread of the foe.
Hide me from the band of the wicked,
from the throng of those who do evil.

They sharpen their tongues like swords;
they aim bitter words like arrows
to shoot at the innocent from ambush,
shooting suddenly and recklessly.

They scheme their evil course;
they conspire to lay secret snares.
They say: ‘Who will see us?
Who can search out our crimes?’

He will search who searches the mind
and knows the depths of the heart.
God has shot them with his arrow
and dealt them sudden wounds.
Their own tongue has brought them to ruin
and all who see them mock.

Then will all men fear;
they will tell what God has done.
They will understand God’s deeds.
The just will rejoice in the Lord
and fly to him for refuge.
All the upright hearts will glory.

Reading

Hosea 6:1-3a

If a group is praying together, then one person should read the reading aloud

Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us; he has struck us down, but he will bandage our wounds; after a day or two he will bring us back to life, on the third day he will raise us and we shall live in his presence.

Pause for silent reflection after the reading

Canticle

Luke 1:68-79

All recite together

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel!
He has visited his people and redeemed them.

He has raised up for us a mighty saviour
in the house of David his servant,
as he promised by the lips of holy men,
those who were his prophets from of old.

A saviour who would free us from our foes,
from the hands of all who hate us.
So his love for our fathers is fulfilled
and his holy covenant remembered.

He swore to Abraham our father to grant us,
that free from fear,
and saved from the hands of our foes,
we might serve him in holiness and justices
all the days of our life in his presence.

As for you, little child,
you shall be called a prophet of God,
the Most High.
you shall go ahead of the Lord
to prepare his ways before him,

To make known to his people their salvation
through forgiveness of all their sins,
the loving-kindness of the heart of our God
who visits us like the dawn from on high.

He will give light to those in darkness,
those who dwell in the shadow of death,
and guide us into the way of peace.

Conclude by making the Sign of the Cross