Welcome
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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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.
What is Choral Matins?
Choral Matins at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral is the first service in our daily pattern of worship. As Christians, we know that God is with us at all times and in all places. Morning and evening are times set aside to pray. This morning prayer service brings us closer to God in three ways: through the singing of songs of praise, reading the Bible, and praying for ourselves and others.
Everyone present participates by being with God in worship, using silence and adoration, words and music. The ways in which we participate in this service may feel strange at first – as it invites us to use much more of ourselves than our voices. Each person has his or her individual part to offer. Some words are said by the ministers, some are sung by the choir; everyone is asked to pray them with heart and mind and strength.
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. City of God, how broad and far
Outspread thy walls sublime!
The true thy chartered freemen are
Of every age and clime:
2. One holy Church, one army strong,
One steadfast, high intent;
One working band, one harvest-song,
One King omnipotent!
3. How purely hath thy speech come down
From man’s primeval youth!
How grandly hath thine empire grown
Of freedom, love, and truth!
4. How gleam thy watch-fires through the night
With never-fainting ray!
How rise thy towers, serene and bright,
To meet the dawning day!
5. In vain the surge’s angry shock,
In vain the drifting sands:
Unharmed upon the eternal Rock
The eternal City stands.
Samuel Johnson (1822–82)
Thomas Haweis (1734–1820)
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 Priest pronounces the
Absolution
At the end, all say
Amen.
Please stand as 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 (1949–2021)
Please sit as the Choir sings the
Psalm
PSALM 39 vv 1–7
Dixi, Custodiam.
I said, I will take heed to my ways: that I offend not in my tongue. I will keep my mouth as it were with a bridle: while the ungodly is in my sight. I held my tongue, and spake nothing: I kept silence, yea, even from good works; but it was pain and grief to me. My heart was hot within me, and while I was thus musing the fire kindled: and at the last I spake with my tongue. Lord, let me know mine end, and the number of my days: that I may be certified how long I have to live. Behold, thou hast made my days as it were a span long; and mine age is even as nothing in respect of thee: and verily every man living is altogether vanity. For man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain: he heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them.
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
Exodus 20: 1–4, 7–9
Please stand as the Choir sings
Te Deum
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 Cherubim, and Seraphim 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. O Lord, save thy people and bless thine heritage: govern them and lift them up for ever. Day by day we magnify thee and we worship thy Name ever world without end. 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.
Service in C; Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924)
Please sit for the
Second Lesson
Matthew 21: 33–46
Please stand as the Choir sings
Jubilate
O be joyful in the Lord all ye lands: serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song. Be ye sure that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and speak good of his Name. For the Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting: and his truth endureth from generation to generation. 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.
Service in C; Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924)
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
Collect of the Day
Lord, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee the only God; 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.
Richard Shephard (1949–2021)
Please sit as the Choir sings the
Anthem
Beati quorum via integra est qui ambulant in lege Domini.
(Blessed are they that are undefiled in the way and walk in the law of the Lord.)
Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924)
Sermon
The Reverend G. V. Wharton, B.Th., M.Phil., Prebendary of Dunlavin
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. Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
Doth his successive journeys run;
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.
2. To him shall endless prayer be made,
And princes throng to crown his head;
His Name, like sweet perfume, shall rise
With every morning sacrifice.
3. People and realms of every tongue
Dwell on his love with sweetest song,
And infant voices shall proclaim
Their early blessings on his Name.
4. Blessings abound where’er he reigns:
The prisoner leaps to lose his chains;
The weary find eternal rest,
And all the sons of want are blest.
5. Let every creature rise and bring
Peculiar honours to our King;
Angels descend with songs again,
And earth repeat the long Amen.
Isaac Watts (1674–1748)
Psalmodia Evangelica (1789)
Please remain standing for the
Blessing
At the end, all say
Amen.
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