Book of Common Prayer

101 The prayer of the poor man, when he was anxious, and poured out his supplication before the Lord.

² Hear, O Lord, my prayer: and let my cry come to thee.

³ Turn not away thy face from me: in the day when I am in trouble, incline thy ear to me. In what day soever I shall call upon thee, hear me speedily.

⁴ For my days are vanished like smoke: and my bones are grown dry like fuel for the fire.

⁵ I am smitten as grass, and my heart is withered: because I forgot to eat my bread.

⁶ Through the voice of my groaning, my bone hath cleaved to my flesh.

⁷ I am become like to a pelican of the wilderness: I am like a night raven in the house.

⁸ I have watched, and am become as a sparrow all alone on the housetop.

⁹ All the day long my enemies reproached me: and they that praised me did swear against me.

¹⁰ For I did eat ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping.

¹¹ Because of thy anger and indignation: for having lifted me up thou hast thrown me down.

¹² My days have declined like a shadow, and I am withered like grass.

¹³ But thou, O Lord, endurest for ever: and thy memorial to all generations.

¹⁴ Thou shalt arise and have mercy on Sion: for it is time to have mercy on it, for the time is come.

¹⁵ For the stones thereof have pleased thy servants: and they shall have pity on the earth thereof.

¹⁶ And the Gentiles shall fear thy name, O Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.

¹⁷ For the Lord hath built up Sion: and he shall be seen in his glory.

¹⁸ He hath had regard to the prayer of the humble: and he hath not despised their petition.

¹⁹ Let these things be written unto another generation: and the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord:

²⁰ Because he hath looked forth from his high sanctuary: from heaven the Lord hath looked upon the earth.

²¹ That he might hear the groans of them that are in fetters: that he might release the children of the slain:

²² That they may declare the name of the Lord in Sion: and his praise in Jerusalem;

²³ When the people assemble together, and kings, to serve the Lord.

²⁴ He answered him in the way of his strength: Declare unto me the fewness of my days.

²⁵ Call me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are unto generation and generation.

²⁶ In the beginning, O Lord, thou foundedst the earth: and the heavens are the works of thy hands.

²⁷ They shall perish but thou remainest: and all of them shall grow old like a garment: And as a vesture thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed.

²⁸ But thou art always the selfsame, and thy years shall not fail.

²⁹ The children of thy servants shall continue: and their seed shall be directed for ever.

109 The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand: Until I make thy enemies thy footstool.

² The Lord will send forth the sceptre of thy power out of Sion: rule thou in the midst of thy enemies.

³ With thee is the principality in the day of thy strength: in the brightness of the saints: from the womb before the day star I begot thee.

⁴ The Lord hath sworn, and he will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech.

⁵ The Lord at thy right hand hath broken kings in the day of his wrath.

⁶ He shall judge among nations, he shall fill ruins: he shall crush the heads in the land of the many.

⁷ He shall drink of the torrent in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.

¹⁵ Look down from heaven, and behold from thy holy habitation and the place of thy glory: where is thy zeal, and thy strength, the multitude of thy bowels, and of thy mercies? they have held back themselves from me.

¹⁶ For thou art our father, and Abraham hath not known us, and Israel hath been ignorant of us: thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer, from everlasting is thy name.

¹⁷ Why hast thou made us to err, O Lord, from thy ways: why hast thou hardened our heart, that we should not fear thee? return for the sake of thy servants, the tribes of thy inheritance.

¹⁸ They have possessed thy holy people as nothing: our enemies have trodden down thy sanctuary.

¹⁹ We are become as in the beginning, when thou didst not rule over us, and when we were not called by thy name.

64 That thou wouldst rend the heavens, and wouldst come down: the mountains would melt away at thy presence.

² They would melt as at the burning of fire, the waters would burn with fire, that thy name might be made known to thy enemies: that the nations might tremble at thy presence.

³ When thou shalt do wonderful things, we shall not bear them: thou didst come down, and at thy presence the mountains melted away.

⁴ From the beginning of the world they have not heard, nor perceived with the ears: the eye hath not seen, O God, besides thee, what things thou hast prepared for them that wait for thee.

⁵ Thou hast met him that rejoiceth, and doth justice: in thy ways they shall remember thee: behold thou art angry, and we have sinned: in them we have been always, and we shall be saved.

⁶ And we are all become as one unclean, and all our justices as the rag of a menstruous woman: and we have all fallen as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

⁷ There is none that calleth upon thy name: that riseth up, and taketh hold of thee: thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast crushed us in the hand of our iniquity.

⁸ And now, O Lord, thou art our father, and we are clay: and thou art our maker, and we all are the works of thy hands.

⁹ Be not very angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity: behold, see we are all thy people.

3 A faithful saying: if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.

² It behoveth therefore a bishop to be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, prudent, of good behaviour, chaste, given to hospitality, a teacher,

³ Not given to wine, no striker, but modest, not quarrelsome, not covetous, but

⁴ One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all chastity.

⁵ But if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?

⁶ Not a neophyte: lest being puffed up with pride, he fall into the judgment of the devil.

⁷ Moreover he must have a good testimony of them who are without: lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

⁸ Deacons in like manner chaste, not double tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre:

⁹ Holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience.

¹⁰ And let these also first be proved: and so let them minister, having no crime.

¹¹ The women in like manner chaste, not slanderers, but sober, faithful in all things.

¹² Let deacons be the husbands of one wife: who rule well their children, and their own houses.

¹³ For they that have ministered well, shall purchase to themselves a good degree, and much confidence in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴ These things I write to thee, hoping that I shall come to thee shortly.

¹⁵ But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

¹⁶ And evidently great is the mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh, was justified in the spirit, appeared unto angels, hath been preached unto the Gentiles, is believed in the world, is taken up in glory.

²⁷ And they come again to Jerusalem. And when he was walking in the temple, there come to him the chief priests and the scribes and the ancients,

²⁸ And they say to him: By what authority dost thou these things? and who hath given thee this authority that thou shouldst do these things?

²⁹ And Jesus answering, said to them: I will also ask you one word, and answer you me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

³⁰ The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or from men? Answer me.

³¹ But they thought with themselves, saying: If we say, From heaven; he will say, Why then did you not believe him?

³² If we say, From men, we fear the people. For all men counted John that he was a prophet indeed.

³³ And they answering, say to Jesus: We know not. And Jesus answering, saith to them: Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.

12 And he began to speak to them in parables: A certain man planted a vineyard and made a hedge about it, and dug a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it to husbandmen; and went into a far country.

² And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant to receive of the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard.

³ Who having laid hands on him, beat him, and sent him away empty.

⁴ And again he sent to them another servant; and him they wounded in the head, and used him reproachfully.

⁵ And again he sent another, and him they killed: and many others, of whom some they beat, and others they killed.

⁶ Therefore having yet one son, most dear to him; he also sent him unto them last of all, saying: They will reverence my son.

⁷ But the husbandmen said one to another: This is the heir; come let us kill him; and the inheritance shall be ours.

⁸ And laying hold on him, they killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.

⁹ What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those husbandmen; and will give the vineyard to others.

¹⁰ And have you not read this scripture, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is made the head of the corner:

¹¹ By the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes.

¹² And they sought to lay hands on him, but they feared the people. For they knew that he spoke this parable to them. And leaving him, they went their way.