Category: Choral Evensong

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Choral Evensong

Easter Sunday – Sunday 9th April 2023 – 15:15

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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 It may sound old-fashioned, but its meaning is not out of date.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.

Order of Service

Please stand as the Minister sings

Let us pray.

Please remain standing whilst the Choir and Clergy enter the stalls

Please remain standing to sing the

Hymn

1. Love’s redeeming work is done;
Fought the fight, the battle won:
Lo, our Sun’s eclipse is o’er!
Lo, he sets in blood no more!

2. Vain the stone, the watch, the seal;
Christ has burst the gates of hell;
Death in vain forbids his rise;
Christ has opened Paradise.

3. Lives again our glorious King;
Where, O Death, is now thy sting?
Dying once, he all doth save;
Where thy victory, O grave?

4. Soar we now where Christ has led,
Following our exalted Head;
Made like him, like him we rise;
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies.

5. Hail the Lord of earth and heaven!
Praise to thee by both be given:
Thee we greet triumphant now;
Hail, the Resurrection thou!

Charles Wesley (1707–88)

John Wesley (1701–90)

Please remain standing.

The Minister and Choir sing the

Preces and 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 114

In exitu Israel.

When Israel came out of Egypt: and the house of Jacob from among the strange people,  Judah was his sanctuary: and Israel his dominion.  The sea saw that, and fled: Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams: and the little hills like young sheep.  What aileth thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest: and thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?  Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams: and ye little hills, like young sheep? Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord: at the presence of the God of Jacob; Who turned the hard rock into a standing water: and the flint-stone into a springing well.

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

Song of Solomon 3: 2–5; 8: 6–7

‘I will rise now and go about the city,
in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my soul loves.’
I sought him, but found him not.
The sentinels found me,
as they went about in the city.
‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?’
Scarcely had I passed them,
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go
until I brought him into my mother’s house,
and into the chamber of her that conceived me.
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or the wild does:
do not stir up or awaken love
until it is ready!

 

Please stand as the Choir sings 

MAGNIFICAT

Collegium Regale; Herbert Howells (1892–1983)

Please sit for the 

John 20: 11–18

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Please stand as the Choir sings 

NUNC DIMITTIS

Collegium Regale; Herbert Howells (1892–1983)

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 AND 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 

Almighty God, who through thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life; We humbly beseech thee, that, as by thy special grace preventing us thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, ever 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.

Thomas Tallis (d.1585)

Please sit as the Choir sings the

THE SERMON IN MUSIC

Introduced by the Dean

We praise thee, O God, we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship thee the Father everlasting.
To thee all Angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein.
To thee Cherubin and Seraphin continually do cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy: Lord God of Sabaoth;
Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of thy glory.
The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee:
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee.
The noble army of Martyrs praise thee.
The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee;
The Father of an infinite Majesty;
Thine honourable, true and only Son;
Also the Holy Ghost the Comforter.
Thou art the King of glory O Christ.
Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.
When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man thou didst not abhor the Virgin’s womb.
When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death
thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
Thou sittest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father.
We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge.
We therefore pray thee, help thy servants
whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood.
Make them to be numbered with thy Saints in glory everlasting.
Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin.
O Lord have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us.
O Lord let thy mercy lighten upon us as our trust is in thee.
O Lord, in thee have I trusted: let me never be confounded.

Herbert Howells (1892–1983)
Te Deum Laudamus, Collegium Regale

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 to sing

Hymn

During this hymn a collection of money is made. If you would like to donate securely online, tap the button below.

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1. The day of Resurrection!
Earth, tell it out abroad!
The Passover of gladness,
The Passover of God.
From death to life eternal,
From earth unto the sky,
Our Christ hath brought us over,
With hymns of victory.

2. Our hearts be pure from evil,
That we may see aright
The Lord in rays eternal
Of resurrection-light;
And, listening to his accents,
May hear, so calm and plain,
His own ‘All hail,’ and hearing,
May raise the victor-strain.

3. Now let the heavens be joyful,
And earth her song begin,
The round world keep high triumph,
And all that is therein;
Let all things seen and unseen
Their notes of gladness blend,
For Christ the Lord hath risen,
Our joy that hath no end.

St John of Damascus (c.750)

tr. John Neale (1818–66)

Mainz Gesangbuch (1784)

 

Please remain standing for

The Blessing

Please stand as the Choir and Clergy depart. 

 

Please remain at your seat for the duration of the 

ORGAN VOLUNTARY

Prelude in E minor   J. S. Bach (1685–1750)

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