✙

Fourth Sunday after Easter

EVENING

05.03.2026

Our Father, whichwho art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done inon earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them thatthose who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

O Lord, open thou our lips.

And our mouth shall show forth thy praise.

O God, make speed to save us.

O Lord, make haste to help us.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Praise ye the Lord.

The Lord's Name be praised.

—   ✤   —

Ps. 18.

I will love thee, O Lord, my strength; the Lord is my stony rock, and my defence: my Saviour, my God, and my might, in whom I will trust, my buckler, the horn also of my salvation, and my refuge.
I will call upon the Lord, which is worthy to be praised; so shall I be safe from mine enemies.
The sorrows of death compassed me, and the overflowings of ungodliness made me afraid.
The pains of hell came about me; the snares of death overtook me.
In my trouble I will call upon the Lord, and complain unto my God.
So shall he hear my voice out of his holy temple; and my complaint shall come before him, it shall enter even into his ears.
The earth trembled and quaked; the very foundations also of the hills shook, and were removed, because he was wroth.
There went a smoke out in his presence, and a consuming fire out of his mouth, so that coals were kindled at it.
He bowed the heavens also, and came down, and it was dark under his feet.
He rode upon the cherubins, and did fly; he came flying upon the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his secret place: his pavilion round about him, with dark water and thick clouds to cover him.
At the brightness of his presence his clouds removed; hailstones, and coals of fire.
The Lord also thundered out of heaven, and the Highest gave his thunder; hailstones, and coals of fire.
He sent out his arrows, and scattered them; he cast forth lightnings, and destroyed them.
The springs of waters were seen, and the foundations of the round world were discovered, at thy chiding, O Lord; at the blasting of the breath of thy displeasure.
He shall send down from on high to fetch me, and shall take me out of many waters.
He shall deliver me from my strongest enemy, and from them which hate me; for they are too mighty for me.
They prevented me in the day of my trouble, but the Lord was my upholder.
He brought me forth also into a place of liberty; he brought me forth, even because he had a favour unto me.
The Lord shall reward me after my righteous dealing; according to the cleanness of my hands shall he recompense me.
Because I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not forsaken my God, as the wicked doth.
For I have an eye unto all his laws, and will not cast out his commandments from me.
I was also uncorrupt before him, and eschewed mine own wickedness.
Therefore shall the Lord reward me after my righteous dealing, and according unto the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.
With the holy thou shalt be holy, and with a perfect man thou shalt be perfect.
With the clean thou shalt be clean, and with the froward thou shalt learn frowardness.
For thou shalt save the people that are in adversity, and shalt bring down the high looks of the proud.
Thou also shalt light my candle; the Lord my God shall make my darkness to be light.
For in thee I shall discomfit an host of men, and with the help of my God I shall leap over the wall.
The way of God is an undefiled way: the word of the Lord also is tried in the fire; he is the defender of all them that put their trust in him.
For who is God, but the Lord? or who hath any strength, except our God?
It is God, that girdeth me with strength of war, and maketh my way perfect.
He maketh my feet like harts' feet, and setteth me up on high.
He teacheth mine hands to fight, and mine arms shall break even a bow of steel.
Thou hast given me the defence of thy salvation; thy right hand also shall hold me up, and thy loving correction shall make me great.
Thou shalt make room enough under me for to go, that my footsteps shall not slide.
I will follow upon mine enemies, and overtake them; neither will I turn again till I have destroyed them.
I will smite them, that they shall not be able to stand, but fall under my feet.
Thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle; thou shalt throw down mine enemies under me.
Thou hast made mine enemies also to turn their backs upon me, and I shall destroy them that hate me.
They shall cry, but there shall be none to help them; yea, even unto the Lord shall they cry, but he shall not hear them.
I will beat them as small as the dust before the wind; I will cast them out as the clay in the streets.
Thou shalt deliver me from the strivings of the people, and thou shalt make me the head of the heathen.
A people whom I have not known shall serve me.
As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me; but the strange children shall dissemble with me.
The strange children shall fail, and be afraid out of their prisons.
The Lord liveth, and blessed be my strong helper, and praised be the God of my salvation;
Even the God that seeth that I be avenged, and subdueth the people unto me.
It is he that delivereth me from my cruel enemies, and setteth me up above mine adversaries: thou shalt rid me from the wicked man.
For this cause will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and sing praises unto thy Name.
Great prosperity giveth he unto his King, and sheweth lovingkindness unto David his Anointed, and unto his seed for evermore.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Here beginneth the 7th chapter of Deuteronomy.
When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.
But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.
For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.
Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.
Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers:
And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.
And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.
And thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.
If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?
Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;
The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out: so shall the Lord thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.
Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.
Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the Lord thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.
And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.
But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.
And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.
The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God.
Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.
Here endeth the first lesson.

My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

For he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden.

For behold, from henceforth

all generations shall call me blessed.

For he that is mighty hath magnified me;

and holy is his Name.

And his mercy is on them that fear him

throughout all generations.

He hath showed strength with his arm;

he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He hath put down the mighty from their seat,

and hath exalted the humble and meek.

He hath filled the hungry with good things;

and the rich he hath sent empty away.

He remembering his mercy, hath holpen his servant Israel;

as he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed, for ever.

Glory be to the Father,

and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning,

is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Here beginneth the 2nd chapter of Romans.
Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.
But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:
For there is no respect of persons with God.
For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,
And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law;
And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.
Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?
Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?
For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.
Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?
For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Here endeth the second lesson.

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word.

For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,

Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;

To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of thy people Israel.

Glory be to the Father,

and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning,

is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

❧

O Almighty God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men; Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed; Give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give; that both our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments, and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies, may pass our time in rest and quietness, through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.

Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night, for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.