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Week 23 of Ordinary Time

Evening Prayer

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

Prayer Reading Mode: Prayer Space

Hours Depth: Medium

About today

Peter Claver (1580–1654), a Jesuit from Spain, spent decades at Cartagena meeting slave ships. He went into the holds with food, medicine, and baptism, calling himself “slave of the slaves forever.” The United States keeps his obligatory memorial on 9 September, a day of examination for a Church that has lived near that sin. Ask today for a Church that will not look away from those treated as cargo, and for a love willing to go down into the hold.

Original – Prayer on Fire.

Opening

God, come to my assistance. Lord, make haste to help me.

Hymn

Stay with us, Lord, for day is ending. Walk the road we have not named. Break the bread of mercy for us; Speak until our hearts are claimed. What we did, and what we failed, We place now in your care. Let the night come as a blessing, And find us still in prayer.

Original – Prayer on Fire

Psalm I

Antiphon

Let my prayer rise like incense before you.

Psalm 145 (144):1–3, 8–9

Catholic Public Domain Version (public domain)

Psalm

I will extol you, O God, my king. And I will bless your name, in this time and forever and ever. Throughout every single day, I will bless you. And I will praise your name, in this time and forever and ever. The Lord is great and exceedingly praiseworthy. And there is no end to his greatness. The Lord is compassionate and merciful, patient and full of mercy. The Lord is sweet to all things, and his compassion is upon all his works.

Glory Be

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.

Antiphon

Let my prayer rise like incense before you.

Psalm II

Antiphon

Out of the depths I call; hear me with mercy.

Psalm 23 (22):1–4

Catholic Public Domain Version (public domain)

Psalm

The Lord directs me, and nothing will be lacking to me. He has settled me here, in a place of pasture. He has led me out to the water of refreshment. He has converted my soul. He has led me away on the paths of justice, for the sake of his name. For, even if I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they have given me consolation.

Glory Be

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.

Antiphon

Out of the depths I call; hear me with mercy.

Silence

Hold the psalm a little longer.

Reading

Ephesians 3:14–21

Catholic Public Domain Version (public domain)

By reason of this grace, I bend my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all paternity in heaven and on earth takes its name. And I ask him to grant to you to be strengthened in virtue by his Spirit, in accord with the wealth of his glory, in the inner man, so that Christ may live in your hearts through a faith rooted in, and founded on, charity. So may you be able to embrace, with all the saints, what is the width and length and height and depth of the charity of Christ, and even be able to know that which surpasses all knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do all things, more abundantly than we could ever ask or understand, by means of the virtue which is at work in us: to him be glory, in the Church and in Christ Jesus, throughout every generation, forever and ever. Amen.

Responsory

The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

Magnificat

Antiphon

He has scattered the proud; unclench our hearts before sleep.

Luke 1:46–55

Catholic Public Domain Version (public domain)

Canticle

And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord. And my spirit leaps for joy in God my Savior. For he has looked with favor on the humility of his handmaid. For behold, from this time, all generations shall call me blessed. For he who is great has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is from generation to generations for those who fear him. He has accomplished powerful deeds with his arm. He has scattered the arrogant in the intentions of their heart. He has deposed the powerful from their seat, and he has exalted the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has taken up his servant Israel, mindful of his mercy, just as he spoke to our fathers: to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

Glory Be

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.

Antiphon

He has scattered the proud; unclench our hearts before sleep.

Intercessions

Forgive what we have done and what we have left undone.

R. Lord, have mercy.

For those we wounded, that you would heal them.

R. Lord, have mercy.

For those who wounded us, that we may not rehearse it.

R. Lord, have mercy.

For a clean heart before we sleep.

R. Lord, have mercy.

For the dead we remember at dusk.

R. Lord, have mercy.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Closing prayer

As lamps are lit, be our unfailing light. Do not let the dark teach us despair. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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An original Prayer on Fire offering for the hours of the day