Matins is an early morning worship service, and is the first of the canonical hours. The name comes from the Latin matutinus “pertaining to the morning.” It is one of the canonical hours, which developed as dedicated times, or hours, for prayer and devotion. Matins, sometimes spelled “mattins,” was the longest of the services of the breviary. It consisted chiefly of three sets of psalms and lessons. It was a vigil service, begun several hours before dawn. In the Rule of St. Benedict of Nursia, matins was typically at 2 a.m. Thomas Cranmer combined portions of matins, lauds, and prime to form his English Mattins in the 1549 BCP. This service became Morning Prayer.
On this site associated with Saint Patrick, God has been worshipped through the prayers and praises of countless generations. We welcome you here today to share in this worship. Much of today’s service is sung by the Choir, allowing you space to reflect and freedom to participate in a silent, but equally direct, way.
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
Hymn
1. For Mary, Mother of the Lord
God’s holy name be praised,
Who first the Son of God adored
As on her child she gazed.
2. The angel Gabriel brought the word
She should Christ’s mother be;
And Mary, handmaid of the Lord,
Made answer willingly.
3. The heavenly call she thus obeyed,
And so God’s will was done;
The second Eve love’s answer made
Which our redemption won.
4. She gave her body for God’s shrine,
Her heart to piercing pain,
And knew the cost of love divine
When Jesus Christ was slain.
5. Dear Mary, from your lowliness
And home in Galilee,
There comes a joy and holiness
To every family.
6. Hail, Mary, you are full of grace,
Above all women blest;
Blest in your Son, whom you embrace
In birth and death confessed.
Canon John Peacey (1896–1971)
Gordon Slater (1896–1979)
The Minister welcomes the People and introduces the GENERAL CONFESSION:
Let us kneel, humbly to confess our sins unto almighty God:
Please kneel or sit, according to your custom
Almighty and most merciful Father; We have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults. Restore thou them that are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.
The ABSOLUTION is pronounced by the Priest, to which the People respond Amen.
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.
Kenneth Leighton (1929–88)
Please sit as the Choir sings the
Psalm
PSALM 119 vv 105–112
Lucerna pedibus meis.
Thy word is a lantern unto my feet: and a light unto my paths. I have sworn, and am steadfastly purposed: to keep thy righteous judgements. I am troubled above measure: quicken me, O Lord, according to thy word. Let the free-will offerings of my mouth please thee, O Lord: and teach me thy judgements. My soul is alway in my hand: yet do I not forget thy law. The ungodly have laid a snare for me: but yet I swerved not from thy commandments. Thy testimonies have I claimed as mine heritage for ever: and why? they are the very joy of my heart. I have applied my heart to fulfil thy statutes alway: even unto the end.
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
First Lesson
Ezekiel 37: 1–14
Please stand as the Choir sings
The Lamentations of Jeremiah
How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people, how is she become as a widow! She that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! She weepeth sore in the night and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her. The ways of Sion do mourn because none come to the solemn assembly: all her gates are desolate and she herself is in bitterness. The Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. All they that go by clap their hands at her. They hiss, and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying: Is this the city that men called the perfection of beauty: the joy of the whole earth? Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return unto the Lord thy God.
For these things I weep, mine eye runneth down with water. From on high hath the Lord sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he made old, he hath broken my bones. He hath builded against me and compassed me with gall and travail. He hath made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead. I am become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day. Let him give his cheek to him that smiteth him: let him be filled full with reproach. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. Remember mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return unto the Lord thy God.
Please sit for the
Second Lesson
John 11: 1–45
Please stand as the Choir sings
Benedictus
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people, And hath raised up a mighty salvation for us in the house of his servant David; As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the world began; That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hands of all that hate us, To perform the mercy promised to our forefathers, and to remember his holy covenant; To perform the oath which he sware to our forefather Abraham: that he would give us, That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; To give knowledge of salvation unto his people, for the remission of their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us, To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace. 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.
George Dyson (1883–1964)
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
Collect of the Day
We beseech thee, Almighty God, look upon the hearty desires of thy humble servants, and stretch forth the right hand of thy Majesty, to be our defence against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Collect for Peace
O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom; Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Collect for Grace
O Lord, our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day: Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings may be ordered by thy governance, to do always that is righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Kenneth Leighton (1929–88)
Please sit as the Choir sings the
ANTHEM
It is a thing most wonderful, almost too wonderful to be, that God’s own Son should come from heaven, and die to save a child like me. And yet I know that it is true; he chose a poor and humble lot, and wept and toiled and mourned and died, for love of those who loved him not. I sometimes think about the Cross, and shut my eyes, and try to see the cruel nails and crown of thorns, and Jesus crucified for me. It is most wonderful to know his love for me so free and sure; but ’tis more wonderful to see my love for him so faint and poor. And yet I want to love thee, Lord; O light the flame within my heart, and I will love thee more and more, until I see thee as thou art.
Philip Moore (b.1943)
Please sit for the
Sermon
Preacher: The Reverend P. R. Campion, B.A., B.Th., M.A., M.Phil., Precentor
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
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1. Her Virgin eyes saw God incarnate born,
When she to Bethl’em came that happy morn;
How high her raptures then began to swell,
None but her own omniscient Son can tell.
2. As Eve when she her fontal sin reviewed,
Wept for herself and all she should include,
Blest Mary with man’s Saviour in embrace
Joyed for herself and for all human race.
3. All saints are by her Son’s dear influence blest,
She kept the very Fountain at her breast;
The Son adored and nursed by the sweet Maid
A thousandfold of love for love repaid.
4. Heaven with transcendent joys her entrance graced,
Next to his throne her Son his Mother placed;
And here below, now she’s of heaven possest
All generations are to call her blest.
Thomas Ken (1637–1711)
Henry Lawes (1596–1662)
Please remain standing for
The Blessing
Please remain standing as the Choir and Clergy depart.
The Minister and Choir sing
The Dismissal
The Lord be with you. And with thy spirit.
Let us bless the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Please remain at your seat for the duration of the