Evening Prayer

Wednesday after Lent III
Wednesday, March 11, 2026

The Invitatory and Psalter

O God, make speed to save us.

O Lord, make haste to help us.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

O Gracious Light Phos hilaron

O gracious light,

pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,

O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!

Now as we come to the setting of the sun,

and our eyes behold the vesper light,

we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,

O Son of God, O Giver of Life,

and to be glorified through all the worlds.

Psalm 81 Exultate Deo

Sing with joy to God our strength *

and raise a loud shout to the God of Jacob.

Raise a song and sound the timbrel, *

the merry harp, and the lyre.

Blow the ram’s-horn at the new moon, *

and at the full moon, the day of our feast.

For this is a statute for Israel, *

a law of the God of Jacob.

He laid it as a solemn charge upon Joseph, *

when he came out of the land of Egypt.

I heard an unfamiliar voice saying, *

“I eased his shoulder from the burden;

his hands were set free from bearing the load.”

You called on me in trouble, and I saved you; *

I answered you from the secret place of thunder

and tested you at the waters of Meribah.

Hear, O my people, and I will admonish you: *

O Israel, if you would but listen to me!

There shall be no strange god among you; *

you shall not worship a foreign god.

I am the Lord your God,

who brought you out of the land of Egypt and said, *

“Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

And yet my people did not hear my voice, *

and Israel would not obey me.

So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their hearts, *

to follow their own devices.

Oh, that my people would listen to me! *

that Israel would walk in my ways!

I should soon subdue their enemies *

and turn my hand against their foes.

Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, *

and their punishment would last for ever.

But Israel would I feed with the finest wheat *

and satisfy him with honey from the rock.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

The Lessons

First Lesson Jeremiah 2:4–13 (NRSV)

⁴Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. ⁵Thus says the Lord:

What wrong did your ancestors find in me

that they went far from me,

and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?

⁶They did not say, “Where is the Lord

who brought us up from the land of Egypt,

who led us in the wilderness,

in a land of deserts and pits,

in a land of drought and deep darkness,

in a land that no one passes through,

where no one lives?”

⁷I brought you into a plentiful land

to eat its fruits and its good things.

But when you entered you defiled my land,

and made my heritage an abomination.

⁸The priests did not say, “Where is the Lord?”

Those who handle the law did not know me;

the rulers transgressed against me;

the prophets prophesied by Baal,

and went after things that do not profit.

⁹Therefore once more I accuse you,

says the Lord,

and I accuse your children’s children.

¹⁰Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look,

send to Kedar and examine with care;

see if there has ever been such a thing.

¹¹Has a nation changed its gods,

even though they are no gods?

But my people have changed their glory

for something that does not profit.

¹²Be appalled, O heavens, at this,

be shocked, be utterly desolate,

says the Lord,

¹³for my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me,

the fountain of living water,

and dug out cisterns for themselves,

cracked cisterns

that can hold no water.

The Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.