Readings
- Trinity 1. 22.06.2025
- Collect.
- Contemporary
God, the strength of all those who put their trust in you,
mercifully accept our prayers
and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature
we can do no good thing without you, grant us the help of your grace,
that in the keeping of your commandments we may please you both in will and deed;
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
1 Kings 19. 1-4, [5-7,] 8-15a
1-4
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, ‘So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.’ Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there.
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: ‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.’
[5-7]
Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again.The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, ‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’
8-15a
He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.
Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’
He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus.
Psalm 42; and/or 43
Psalm 42
Pointed Psalm
As the deer / longs for the / water brooks :
so longs my / soul for / you, O / God.
My soul is athirst for God, even for the / living / God :
when shall I come be/fore the / presence of / God?
My tears have been my bread / day and / night :
while all day long they say to me, / ‘Where is / now your / God?’
Now when I think on these things, I pour / out my / soul :
how I went with the multitude
and led the procession / to the / house of / God,
With the voice of / praise and / thanksgiving :
among / those who / kept / holy day.
Why are you so full of heaviness, / O my / soul :
and why are you / so dis/quieted with/in me?
O put your / trust in / God :
for I will yet give him thanks,
who is the help of my / countenance, / and my / God.
My soul is / heavy with/in me :
therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan,
and from Hermon / and the / hill of / Mizar.
Deep calls to deep in the / thunder • of your / waterfalls :
all your breakers and / waves / have gone / over me.
The Lord will grant his loving-kindness / in the / daytime :
through the night his song will be with me,
a / prayer • to the / God of my / life.
I say to God my rock, ‘Why have / you for/gotten me :
and why go I so heavily, / while the / enemy op/presses me?’
As they crush my bones, my / enemies / mock me :
while all day long they say to me, / ‘Where is / now your / God?’
Why are you so full of heaviness, / O my / soul :
and why are you / so dis/quieted with/in me?
O put your / trust in / God :
for I will yet give him thanks,
who is the help of my / countenance, / and my / God.
Psalm 43
Pointed Psalm
Give judgement for me, O God,
and defend my cause against an un/godly / people :
deliver me from the de/ceitful / and the / wicked.
For you are the God of my refuge;
why have you / cast me / from you :
and why go I so heavily, / while the / enemy op/presses me?
O send out your light and your truth,
that / they may / lead me :
and bring me to your holy / hill and / to your / dwelling,
That I may go to the altar of God,
to the God of my / joy and / gladness :
and on the lyre I will give thanks to / you, O / God my / God.
Why are you so full of heaviness, / O my / soul :
and why are you / so dis/quieted with/in me?
O put your / trust in / God :
for I will yet give him thanks,
who is the help of my / countenance, / and my / God.
Galatians 3. 23-29
Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.
Luke 8. 26-39
Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me’ – for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He said, ‘Legion’; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.
Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.
Related
Isaiah 65. 1-9
I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am’, to a nation that did not call on my name. I held out my hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and offering incense on bricks; who sit inside tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat swine’s flesh, with broth of abominable things in their vessels; who say, ‘Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.’ These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all day long. See, it is written before me: I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will indeed repay into their laps their iniquities and their ancestors’ iniquities together, says the Lord;
because they offered incense on the mountains and reviled me on the hills, I will measure into their laps full payment for their actions. Thus says the Lord: As the wine is found in the cluster, and they say, ‘Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it’, so I will do for my servants’ sake, and not destroy them all. I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah inheritors of my mountains; my chosen shall inherit it, and my servants shall settle there.
Psalm 22. 19-28
Pointed Psalm
Be not far from / me, O / Lord :
you are my / strength; / hasten to / help me.
Deliver my soul / from the / sword :
my poor life / from the / power of the / dog.
Save me from the / lion’s / mouth :
from the horns of wild oxen.
/ You have / answered / me!
I will tell of your / name to my / people :
in the midst of the congre/gation / will I / praise you.
Praise the Lord, / you that / fear him :
O seed of Jacob, glorify him;
stand in awe of / him, O / seed of / Israel.
For he has not despised nor abhorred the suffering of the poor;
neither has he hidden his / face / from them :
but when they / cried to / him he / heard them.
From you comes my praise in the great / congre/gation :
I will perform my vows
in the / presence of / those that / fear you.
The poor shall eat / and be / satisfied :
those who seek the Lord shall praise him;
their / hearts shall / live for / ever.
All the ends of the earth shall remember and / turn to the / Lord :
and all the families of the / nations shall / bow be/fore him.
For the kingdom / is the / Lord’s :
and he / rules / over the / nations.
Galatians 3. 23-29
Luke 8. 26-39
The Church in Wales: Word of the Lord 2011. Copyright
@ Church in Wales Publications 2011