We hear God's CALL TO WORSHIP in Psalm 100, known as the Jubilate Deo
Be joyful in the Lord, all you lands;
serve the Lord with gladness
and come before his presence with a song.
Know this: The Lord himself is God;
he himself has made us, and we are his;
we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and call upon his Name.
For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting;
and his faithfulness endures from age to age.
We listen in silence for God's still small voice, CENTERING ourselves, becoming aware of God's presence within us and around us
We respond to God with ADORATION using the words of Richard Baxter
We praise and glorify you our Lord and owner, for we and all things are your own. We praise and glorify you our king and ruler, for we are your subjects, and our perfect obedience is your due. Just are all your laws and judgment; true and sure is all your Word. We praise and glorify you, our great benefactor. In you we live, and move, and are: all that we are, or have, or can do, is wholly from you, the cause of all; and all is for you, for you are our end. Delightfully to love you is our greatest duty, and our only felicity, for you are love itself, and infinitely amiable. Amen.
We hear God’s CALL TO REPENTANCE in Luke 15:20-24
And he got up and went to his father. But, while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was deeply moved; he ran and threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. ‘Father,’ the son said, ‘I sinned against heaven and against you; I am no longer fit to be called your son; make me one of your hired servants.’
But the father turned to his servants and said ‘Be quick and fetch a robe – the very best – and put it on him; give him a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet; and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for here is my son who was dead, and is alive again, was lost, and is found.’
We respond with CONFESSION using the words of Ambrose of Milan
O Lord, you have mercy upon all — take away from me my sins, and mercifully kindle in me the fire of your Holy Spirit. Take away from me the heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh, a heart to love and adore you, a heart to delight in you, to follow and to enjoy you, for Christ’s sake. Amen.
We hear God’s teaching for our lives in THE READING OF THE LAW in Deuteronomy 6:4–9
Hear, Israel:
The Lord is our God,
the Lord is one,
and you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your might.
These words, which I command you this day, shall be on your heart;
and you shall teach them diligently to your children,
and shall talk of them when you sit in your house,
and when you walk by the way,
and when you lie down,
and when you rise up.
You shall bind them for a sign on your hand,
and they shall be for symbols between your eyes.
You shall write them on the door-posts of your house,
and on your gates.
We PRAISE God in the INVITATORY PSALM, the VenitePsalm 95:1-7 · Venite, exultemus
1O come, let us sing to the Lord; *
let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.
2Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, *
and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.
3For the Lord is a great God, *
and a great King above all gods.
4In his hand are all the corners of the earth, *
and the strength of the hills is his also.
5The sea is his, and he made it; *
and his hands prepared the dry land.
6O come, let us worship and bow down, *
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.
7For he is the Lord our God, *
and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
Gloria Patri
Glory be to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
As it was in the beginning,
is now and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
We PRAISE God in THE PSALM OF THE DAYPsalm 22:4–11 · Deus, Deus meus
4Our forefathers put their trust in you; *
they trusted, and you delivered them.
5They cried out to you and were delivered; *
they trusted in you and were not put to shame.
6But as for me, I am a worm and no man, *
scorned by all and despised by the people.
7All who see me laugh me to scorn; *
they curl their lips and wag their heads, saying,
8“He trusted in the Lord; let him deliver him; *
let him rescue him, if he delights in him.”
9Yet you are he who took me out of the womb, *
and kept me safe upon my mother’s breast.
10I have been entrusted to you ever since I was born; *
you were my God when I was still in my mother’s womb.
11Be not far from me, for trouble is near, *
and there is none to help.
We pray a PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION in the words of Thomas Cranmer in the Book of Common Prayer (1549)
Blessed Lord, you have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning — grant us that we may in such a way hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them; that by patience and comfort of your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
We hear God speaking to us in THE READING for the dayExodus 2:1–25
Thursday, 5 February 2026 · Ordinary Time
1A man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi as his wife. 2The woman conceived and bore a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 3When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank. 4His sister stood far off, to see what would be done to him. 5Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe at the river. Her maidens walked along by the riverside. She saw the basket amongst the reeds, and sent her servant to get it. 6She opened it, and saw the child, and behold, the baby cried. She had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”
7Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?”
8Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.”
The young woman went and called the child’s mother. 9Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.”
The woman took the child, and nursed him. 10The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”
11In those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers and saw their burdens. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his brothers. 12He looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no one, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
13He went out the second day, and behold, two men of the Hebrews were fighting with each other. He said to him who did the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow?”
14He said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you plan to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?”
Moses was afraid, and said, “Surely this thing is known.” 15Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and lived in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.
16Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. 18When they came to Reuel, their father, he said, “How is it that you have returned so early today?”
19They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and moreover he drew water for us, and watered the flock.”
20He said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.”
21Moses was content to dwell with the man. He gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter. 22She bore a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land.”
23In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. 24God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25God saw the children of Israel, and God understood.
World English Bible. Or read it at Bible Gateway in the NRSV: Exodus 2:1–25 · the short form, Exodus 2:1–6.
We REFLECT in silence
We greet the day with THE SONG OF ZECHARIAH, the Benedictus Luke 1:68-79
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
he has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior,
born of the house of his servant David.
Through his holy prophets he promised of old,
that he would save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant.
This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham,
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
Free to worship him without fear,
holy and righteous in his sight
all the days of our life.
You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
To give his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
We pray the LORD'S PRAYER as Jesus taught his disciples, in those words which are most meaningful to us
Our [ Father / Mother / Creator ] in heaven,
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done on earth
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our [ trespasses / sins ]
as we forgive those who [ trespass / sin ] against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
We pray a PRAYER OF INTERCESSION in the words of Saint Patrick
I bind myself today:
To the power of God to guide me.
To the might of God to uphold me.
To the wisdom of God to teach me.
The eye of God to watch over me.
The ear of God to hear me.
The word of God to speak to me.
The way of God to lie before me.
The host of God to defend me.
Amen.
We silently pray PERSONAL PRAYER
Followed by
Amen
We pray a PRAYER FOR UNITY OF ALL PEOPLE
God, you have made of one blood all nations of the earth, and your will is that all your children should be gathered into one family of love: break down, we pray you, the walls that divide us; deliver us from hardness of heart and from contempt for those who differ from us; and hasten the time when all shall dwell together in that peace which passes understanding, knowing you as Father and one another as brothers and sisters; through Jesus Christ our Lord, in whom there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but all are one. Amen.
We pray a PRAYER OF GENERAL THANKSGIVING in the words of Hugh Cameron
For the life which you have given and preserved,
the world in which we dwell,
and the hope of everlasting blessedness,
we thank you, O God.
For the pains and distresses which have moulded us as clay is moulded by the potter,
and for the consolations which so often like springs in the desert have refreshed our weariness,
we thank you, O God.
For comfort and help in sorrow,
in pain,
in bereavement,
and when flesh and heart failed,
we thank you, O God.
For the warnings of your spirit speaking to our spirits when the sky was bright and all people spoke well of us,
we thank you, O God.
For the life and doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ,
for his love and sacrifice,
for his boundless compassion,
and for the glorious company of those who have followed him in weakness unto victory,
we thank you, O God.
A concluding BENEDICTION or blessing Numbers 6:24-26
The Lord bless us and keep us;
the Lord make his face to shine upon us,
and be gracious to us;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon us,
and give us peace.
Amen.