OT 34

Lord and God,

Your steadfast love lifts us heavenward from the valley of death in which the wicked have fallen. You bring us from death to life. As those who plotted trouble for your people in the time of Queen Esther were cast down, so deliver us again from the evil one.

Deliver us too from the evil within. Let us not make the bread and wine appointed to proclaim Christ’s death into instruments of gluttony. Let us partake worthily, discerning the body and blood, heeding your discipline unto salvation. The wicked cannot raise, but you make the righteous to rise as they participate in Christ and are drawn heavenward. Lift our hearts to love you; lift our eyes to look for your salvation. For you turn the day of our death into the day of our salvation.