Category: Choral Evensong

Categories
Choral Evensong

Monday 22nd May 2023 – 17:30

Donate

God has been worshipped in this place through the prayers and praises of countless generations. Worship lies at the heart of our life as Christians and we express our theology and belief through our liturgy. It is through these liturgical patterns of words and actions that we are formed and transformed.

Should you wish to translate this order of service into another language, please choose your language in the bottom right. There is a guest wireless network available within the Cathedral for those without a mobile data connection.

Please note that this service may be live streamed for our online congregation. By participating in this service, you acknowledge that you may be visible or audible. If you are uncomfortable about this possibility, please speak to a steward or verger, who will be able to advise further.

The ministry of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral is made possible entirely through the support of individuals like you. The donations which we receive from people all over the world support our worship and music tradition, education programmes, and community outreach work, as well as contributing towards the vast cost of maintaining this historic building. Should you wish to donate online, please tap the donate button. 

Choral Evensong at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral is a tiny fragment of something else: it is part of the worship which is offered to God by people every hour of the day and night, in every corner of the world. When you come to Evensong here, it is as if you are dropping in on a conversation already in progress – a conversation between God and his people. So do not be surprised or concerned if there are some parts that you do not understand straight away.

Evensong is drawn almost entirely from the Bible. Much of the language spoken and sung in this service is that spoken by worshippers more than four hundred years ago. It may sound old-fashioned, but its meaning is not out of date. We invite you to allow the music and words to speak to you in the beauty and peace of this place.

You are invited to say the text in bold in English.

Please stand as the Minister, at the West End of the Cathedral, sings

Let us pray. 

Please remain standing whilst the Choir and Clergy enter the stalls

The Minister and Choir sing the

Preces & Responses

O Lord, open thou our lips.

And our mouth shall show forth thy praise.

O God, make speed to save us.

O Lord, make haste to help us.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Praise ye the Lord.

The Lord’s Name be praised.

Philip Moore (b.1943)

Please sit as the Choir sings the 

PSALM 150 Laudate Dominum. O praise God in his holiness: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him in his noble acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him in the sound of the trumpet: praise him upon the lute and harp. Praise him in the timbrels and dances: praise him upon the strings and pipe. Praise him upon the well-tuned cymbals: praise him upon the loud cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath: praise the Lord.

Please stand for

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Please sit for the

Leviticus 9: 1-11, 22-24

9On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. 2He said to Aaron, ‘Take a bull calf for a sin-offering and a ram for a burnt-offering, without blemish, and offer them before the Lord. 3And say to the people of Israel, “Take a male goat for a sin-offering; a calf and a lamb, yearlings without blemish, for a burnt-offering; 4and an ox and a ram for an offering of well-being to sacrifice before the Lord; and a grain-offering mixed with oil. For today the Lord will appear to you.” ’ 5They brought what Moses commanded to the front of the tent of meeting; and the whole congregation drew near and stood before the Lord. 6And Moses said, ‘This is the thing that the Lord commanded you to do, so that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.’ 7Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘Draw near to the altar and sacrifice your sin-offering and your burnt-offering, and make atonement for yourself and for the people; and sacrifice the offering of the people, and make atonement for them; as the Lord has commanded.’

8 Aaron drew near to the altar, and slaughtered the calf of the sin-offering, which was for himself. 9The sons of Aaron presented the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar; and the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar. 10But the fat, the kidneys, and the appendage of the liver from the sin-offering he turned into smoke on the altar, as the Lord commanded Moses; 11and the flesh and the skin he burned with fire outside the camp.

22 Aaron lifted his hands towards the people and blessed them; and he came down after sacrificing the sin-offering, the burnt-offering, and the offering of well-being. 23Moses and Aaron entered the tent of meeting, and then came out and blessed the people; and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. 24Fire came out from the Lord and consumed the burnt-offering and the fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

Please stand as the Choir sings 

Magnificat

On plainsong tones; Arthur Wills

Please sit for the 

1 Peter 4: 1-6

4Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh,* arm yourselves also with the same intention (for whoever has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin), 2so as to live for the rest of your earthly life* no longer by human desires but by the will of God. 3You have already spent enough time in doing what the Gentiles like to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry. 4They are surprised that you no longer join them in the same excesses of dissipation, and so they blaspheme.* 5But they will have to give an account to him who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. 6For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does.

 

Please stand as the Choir sings 

Nunc Dimittis

On plainsong tones; Arthur Wills

Please remain standing to say the 

Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth: and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary: suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty: from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost: the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints: the forgiveness of sins: the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

The Minister and Choir sing the 

Suffrages & Responses

The Lord be with you.

And with thy spirit.

Let us pray.

Please kneel or sit, according to your custom

Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

Our 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. Amen.

O Lord, shew thy mercy upon us.

And grant us thy salvation.

O Lord, guide and defend our rulers.

And mercifully hear us when we call upon thee.

Endue thy Ministers with righteousness.

And make thy chosen people joyful.

O Lord, save thy people.

And bless thine inheritance.

Give peace in our time, O Lord.

Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God.

O God, make clean our hearts within us.

And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

The Minister intones the 

O God the King of glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven; We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Spirit to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

O God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed; give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give; that both our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments, and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour. 

Amen.

Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. 

Amen.

Philip Moore (b.1943)

Please sit as the Choir sings the

Anthem

Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us, so let us celebrate the feast; not with the old leaven, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Christ, once raised from the dead, dies no more: death has no more dominion over him. In dying he died for sin once for all; in living he lives to God. See yourselves therefore as dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of them that sleep. For as by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead; for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. God raised Christ from the dead and gave him glory, so that faith and hope might be set on God. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his mercy gave us a new birth as his children. God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead so that we have a sure hope in him; the promise of an inheritance that can never be spoilt because it is kept for us in heaven. The ransom that was paid to free us was not paid in silver or gold, but in the precious blood of Christ the Lamb without spot or stain.

John Harper (1992)

The Minister says 

Let us pray.

Please kneel or remain seated for the 

Prayers

At the end, all say

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all, evermore. Amen.

Please stand as the Choir and Clergy depart.

Please remain at your seat for the duration of the

Organ Voluntary

Donate