Evening Prayer Monday of week 23 of Ordinary Time

The Reading

Psalm 126 (127)
Without the Lord, we labour in vain

The Lord will build a house for us and watch over the city.

If the Lord does not build the house,

its builders labour in vain.

If the Lord does not watch over a city,

its workmen guard it in vain.

It is vain for you to rise before the dawn

and go late to your rest,

eating the bread of toil –

to those he loves, the Lord gives sleep.

The Lord bestows sons as an heirloom,

the fruit of the womb as a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior –

so are the sons of one’s youth.

Happy the man who fills his quiver thus:

when he disputes with his enemies at the gate,

he will not be the loser.

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.

The Lord will build a house for us and watch over the city.

My Thoughts +++

Our parish is holding a Friend Raiser. Each week parishioners have been asked to invite someone to attend church with them.  Our goal is to add 10 new members by the end of September. So each Sunday at the end of mass we recite a prayer before the altar asking God to build the house. It is fashioned after this palms. While we haven’t yet added actual members each week attendance has grown at the 12:30 Mass. We thank God for the blessings he has given our little parish and we ask for a continued outpouring of his love and grace upon us.