Reading Notes: Use this provision if the Presentation of Christ is celebrated on Wednesday 2 February.Collect
God our creator,
who in the beginning
commanded the light to shine out of darkness:
we pray that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
may dispel the darkness of ignorance and unbelief,
shine into the hearts of all your people,
and reveal the knowledge of your glory in the face of 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.or
God of heaven,
you send the gospel to the ends of the earth
and your messengers to every nation:
send your Holy Spirit to transform us
by the good news of everlasting life
in Jesus Christ our Lord.ReadingsEzekiel 43.27-44.4
27When these days are over, then from the eighth day onwards the priests shall offer upon the altar your burnt-offerings and your offerings of well-being; and I will accept you, says the Lord God.
44Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east; and it was shut.2The Lord said to me: This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it; for the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall remain shut. 3Only the prince, because he is a prince, may sit in it to eat food before the Lord; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.
4 Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple; and I looked, and lo! the glory of the Lord filled the temple of the Lord; and I fell upon my face.This is the word of the Lord.AllThanks be to God.Psalm 48
1 Great is the Lord and highly to be praised, •
in the city of our God.
2 His holy mountain is fair and lifted high, •
the joy of all the earth.
3 On Mount Zion, the divine dwelling place, •
stands the city of the great king.
4 In her palaces God has shown himself •
to be a sure refuge.
5 For behold, the kings of the earth assembled •
and swept forward together.
6 They saw, and were dumbfounded; •
dismayed, they fled in terror.
7 Trembling seized them there;
they writhed like a woman in labour, •
as when the east wind shatters the ships of Tarshish.
8 As we had heard, so have we seen
in the city of the Lord of hosts, the city of our God: •
God has established her for ever.
9 We have waited on your loving-kindness, O God, •
in the midst of your temple.
10 As with your name, O God,
so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; •
your right hand is full of justice.
11 Let Mount Zion rejoice and the daughters of Judah be glad, •
because of your judgements, O Lord.
12 Walk about Zion and go round about her;
count all her towers; •
consider well her bulwarks; pass through her citadels,
13 That you may tell those who come after
that such is our God for ever and ever. •
It is he that shall be our guide for evermore.
1 Corinthians 13
13If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.This is the word of the Lord.AllThanks be to God.Gospel ReadingHear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.AllGlory to you, O Lord.Luke 2.22-40
22 When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23(as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord’), 24and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons.’
33 And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. 34Then Simeonblessed them and said to his mother Mary, ‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed 35so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’
39 When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. 40The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.This is the Gospel of the Lord.AllPraise to you, O Christ.Post Communion
Generous Lord,
in word and eucharist we have proclaimed the mystery of your love:
help us so to live out our days
that we may be signs of your wonders in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.