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Choral Evensong

Sunday 28th May 2023 – 15:15

Order of Service

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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.

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 It may sound old-fashioned, but its meaning is not out of date.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

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

Please remain standing to sing the

Hymn

1. Come, thou Holy Spirit, come,
And from thy celestial home
Shed thy light and brilliancy:
Father of the poor, draw near
Giver of all gifts, be here,
Come, the soul’s true radiancy.

2. Come, of comforters the best,
Of the soul the sweetest guest,
Come in toil refreshingly:
Thou in labour rest most sweet,
Thou art shadow from the heat,
Comfort in adversity.

3. O thou Light most pure and blest,
Shine within the inmost breast,
Of thy faithful company;
Where thou art not, man has naught;
Every holy deed and thought,
Comes from thy divinity.

4. Sinful hearts do thou make whole;
Bring to life the arid soul;
Guide the feet that go astray:
Make the stubborn heart unbend,
To the faint, new hope extend,
Wounded souls, their hurt allay.

5. Fill the faithful, who confide
In thy power to guard and guide
With thy sevenfold mystery:
Here thy grace and virtue send,
Grant salvation in the end,
And in heaven felicity.

Latin, tr. John Mason Neale (1818–66)

Samuel Webbe (1740–1816)

Please stand.

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.

Richard Shephard (1973–2021)

Please sit as the Choir sings the 

PSALM 137
Super flumina.
By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept: when we remembered thee, O Sion. As for our harps, we hanged them up: upon the trees that are therein. For they that led us away captive required of us then a song, and melody, in our heaviness: Sing us one of the songs of Sion. How shall we sing the Lord’s song: in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem: let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth: yea, if I prefer not Jerusalem in my mirth. Remember the children of Edom, O Lord, in the day of Jerusalem: how they said, Down with it, down with it, even to the ground. O daughter of Babylon thou shalt be wasted with misery: yea, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee, as thou hast served us. Blessed shall he be that taketh thy children: and throweth them against the stones.

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

Joel 2: 21–32

Please stand as the Choir sings 

Magnificat

The Gloucester Service; Herbert Howells (1892–1983)

Please sit for the 

Luke 24: 44–53

Please stand as the Choir sings 

Nunc Dimittis

The Gloucester Service; 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 & 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 

God, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by the sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit; Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same 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.

Richard Shephard (1973–2021)

Please sit as the Choir sings the

Anthem

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord; to give unto them that mourn a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations.

Edward Elgar (1857–1934)

Sermon

Preacher: The Reverend P. I. Arbuthnot, M.A., M.Litt., B.Th., Prebendary of Castleknock

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. Sing to him who in creation
Found its shape and origin;
Spirit, moving on the waters,
Troubled by the God within;
Source of breath to all things breathing,
Life in whom all lives begin.

2. Holy men, both priest and prophet,
Caught his accents, spoke his word;
His the truth behind the wisdoms
Which as yet know not the Lord;
He the love of God eternal,
Which in Christ was seen and heard.

3. Tell of how th’ascended Jesus
Armed a people for his own;
How a hundred men and women
Turned the known world upside-down,
To its dark and farthest corners
By the Wind of Whitsun blown.

4. Praise, O praise the Holy Spirit,
Praise the Father and the Word,
Source, and Truth, and Inspiration,
Trinity in deep accord,
Through thy Voice which speaks within us
We thy creatures own thee Lord.

Michael Hewlett (1916–2012)

Friedrich Filitz (1804–76)

Please remain standing for the

Blessing

Please remain at your seat for the duration of the

Organ Voluntary

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