Readings

  • Trinity 16. 05.10.2025
  • Collect.
  • Contemporary

O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers

of your people who call upon you;

and grant that they may both perceive and know

what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power

faithfully to fulfil them; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Continuous

Lamentations 1. 1-6

How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal.

She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.

Judah has gone into exile with suffering and hard servitude; she lives now among the nations, and finds no resting-place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress.

The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to the festivals; all her gates are desolate, her priests groan; her young girls grieve, and her lot is bitter.

Her foes have become the masters, her enemies prosper, because the Lord has made her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe.

From daughter Zion has departed all her majesty. Her princes have become like stags that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer.

Canticle: Lamentations 3. 19-26 or Psalm 137 or 137. 1-6

Biblical text

Lamentations 3. 19-26

The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall! My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Psalm 137 or 137. 1-6

Pointed Psalm

By the waters of Babylon we sat / down and / wept :

when / we re/membered / Zion.

As for our lyres, we / hung them / up :

on the / willows that / grow • in that / land.

For there our captors asked for a song,

     our tormentors / called for / mirth :

‘Sing us / one of the / songs of / Zion.’

How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a / strange / land? :

If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

     let my right / hand for/get its / skill.

Let my tongue cleave to the / roof of my / mouth :

if / I do / not re/member you,

If I set / not Je/rusalem :

a/bove my / highest / joy.

Remember, O Lord, against the people of Edom

     the / day of Je/rusalem :

how they said, ‘Down with it, down with it,

     / even / to the / ground.’

O daughter of Babylon, / doomed • to des/truction :

happy the one who repays you

for / all • you have / done to / us;

Who / takes your / little ones :

and / dashes them a/gainst the / rock.

2 Timothy 1. 1-14

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

Luke 17. 5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ The Lord replied, ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you.

‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, “Come here at once and take your place at the table”? Would you not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink”? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!” ’

Related

Habakkuk 1. 1-4; 2. 1-4

The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous— therefore judgement comes forth perverted.

I will stand at my watch-post, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint. Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.

Psalm 37. 1-9

Pointed Psalm

Fret not because of / evil/doers :

be not / jealous of / those • who do / wrong.

For they shall soon / wither like / grass :

and like the green / herb / fade a/way.

Trust in the Lord and be / doing / good :

dwell in the land / and be / nourished with / truth.

Let your delight be / in the / Lord :

and he will / give you your / heart’s de/sire.

Commit your way to the Lord and put your / trust in / him :

and / he will / bring it to / pass.

He will make your righteousness as / clear as the / light :

and your just / dealing / as the / noonday.

Be still before the Lord and / wait for / him :

do not fret over those that prosper

     as they / follow their / evil / schemes.

Refrain from anger and a/bandon / wrath :

do not fret, / lest you be / moved • to do / evil.

For evildoers / shall be cut / off :

but those who wait upon the Lord / shall pos/sess the / land.

2 Timothy 1. 1-14

Luke 17. 5-10

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