Morning Prayer

Saturday before the Transfiguration of Our Lord
Saturday, February 14, 2026

The Invitatory and Psalter

Lord, open our lips.

And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Alleluia.

The mercy of the Lord is everlasting: Come let us adore him.

Venite Psalm 95:1–7

Come let us sing to the Lord; *

let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *

and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.

For the Lord is a great God, *

and a great King above all gods.

In his hand are the caverns of the earth, *

and the heights of the hills are his also.

The sea is his, for he made it, *

and his hands have molded the dry land.

Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, *

and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For he is our God,

and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. *

Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice!

The mercy of the Lord is everlasting: Come let us adore him.

Psalm 2 Quare fremuerunt gentes?

Why are the nations in an uproar? *

Why do the peoples mutter empty threats?

Why do the kings of the earth rise up in revolt,

and the princes plot together, *

against the Lord and against his Anointed?

“Let us break their yoke,” they say; *

“let us cast off their bonds from us.”

He whose throne is in heaven is laughing; *

the Lord has them in derision.

Then he speaks to them in his wrath, *

and his rage fills them with terror.

“I myself have set my king *

upon my holy hill of Zion.”

Let me announce the decree of the Lord: *

he said to me, “You are my Son;

this day have I begotten you.

Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance *

and the ends of the earth for your possession.

You shall crush them with an iron rod *

and shatter them like a piece of pottery.”

And now, you kings, be wise; *

be warned, you rulers of the earth.

Submit to the Lord with fear, *

and with trembling bow before him;

Lest he be angry and you perish; *

for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Happy are they all *

who take refuge in him!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

The Lessons

First Lesson 1 Kings 21:20–29 (NRSV)

²⁰Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you. Because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, ²¹I will bring disaster on you; I will consume you, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel; ²²and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin. ²³Also concerning Jezebel the Lord said, ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the bounds of Jezreel.’ ²⁴Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and anyone of his who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat.”

²⁵(Indeed, there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord, urged on by his wife Jezebel. ²⁶He acted most abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites.)

²⁷When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth over his bare flesh; he fasted, lay in the sackcloth, and went about dejectedly. ²⁸Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: ²⁹“Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son’s days I will bring the disaster on his house.”

The Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.