INTROIT
Ps 47:10-11
O God, we ponder Your kindness within Your temple. As Your name, O God, so also Your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Of justice Your right hand is full.
Ps 47:2
Great is the Lord, and wholly to be praised in the city of our God, His holy mountain.
Glory Be to the Father…
O God, we ponder Your kindness within Your temple. As Your name, O God, so also Your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Of justice Your right hand is full.
COLLECT
Almighty, eternal God, we humbly beseech Your majesty that, as Your only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in the nature of our flesh, so may You grant us to be presented to You with purified minds.
Through our Lord…
EPISTLE
Lesson from the book of Malachias
Mal 3:1-4
Thus says the Lord God: Lo, I am sending My messenger to prepare the way before Me; and suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord Whom you seek, and the Messenger of the covenant Whom you desire. Yes. He is coming, says the Lord of Hosts. But who will endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like the refiner’s fire, or like the fuller’s lye. He will sit refining and purifying silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the Lord. Then the sacrifice of Juda and Jerusalem will please the Lord, as in the days of old, as in years gone by, says the Lord almighty.
GRADUAL
Ps 47:10-11, 9.
O God, we ponder Your kindness within Your temple. As Your name, O God, so also Your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.
℣. As we have heard so have we seen, in the city of our God, in His holy mountain.
Luke 2:29-32
Now You dismiss Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word, in peace.
℣. Because my eyes have seen Your salvation.
℣. Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples.
℣. A light of revelation to the Gentiles, and a glory for Your people Israel.
GOSPEL
Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to Luke
Luke 2:22-32
At that time, when the days of Mary’s purification were fulfilled according to the Law of Moses, they took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord – as it is written in the Law of the Lord, Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord – and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. And behold, there was in Jerusalem a man named Simeon, and this man was just and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. And he came by inspiration of the Spirit into the temple. And when His parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the Law, he also received Him into his arms and blessed God, saying, Now You dismiss Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word, in peace; because my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all peoples: a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and a glory for Your people Israel.
OFFERTORY
Ps 44:3
Grace is poured out upon your lips; thus God has blessed you forever, and for ages of ages.
SECRET
O Lord, heed our prayer, and give us the help of Your loving kindness so that the gifts we offer before the eyes of Your majesty may be worthy of You.
Through our Lord…
PREFACE
Nativity
It is truly meet and just, right and for our salvation, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God, for through the Mystery of the Word made flesh, the new light of Thy glory hath shone upon the eyes of our mind, so that while we acknowledge God in visible form, we may through Him be drawn to the love of things invisible. And therefore with Angels and Archangels, with Throne and Dominations, and with all the hosts of the heavenly army, we sing the hymn of Thy glory, evermore saying:
COMMUNION
Luke 2:26
It was revealed to Simeon by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.
POSTCOMMUNION
We beseech You, O Lord our God, that the sacrament You have given as the bulwark of our atonement may be made a saving remedy for us in this life and in the life to come.
Through our Lord…