Lectionary readings (Click the links to see the readings):

Matthias
Acts 1.14-17,20-26 | Psalm 113 or Psalm 84 | Philippians 3.13-21 | John 15.9-17
Of the day:
Daniel 9.4-10 | Psalm 79.8-13 | Luke 6.36-38

O God my creator and redeemer, I may not go forth today except you accompany me with your blessing. Let not the vigour and freshness of the morning, or the glow of good health, or the present prosperity of my undertakings, deceive me into a false reliance upon my own strength. All these good gifts have come to me from you. They were yours to give and they are yours also to curtail. They are not mine to keep; I do but hold them in trust; and only in continued dependence upon you, the giver, can they be worthily enjoyed.

Let me then put back into your hand all that you have given me, rededicating to your service all the powers of my mind and body all my worldly goods, all my influence with others. All these, O Father, are your to use as you will. All these are yours, O Christ. All these are yours, O Holy Spirit. Speak in my words today, think in my thoughts, and work in all my deeds.

As it is your gracious will to make use even of such weak human instruments in the fulfillment of your mighty purpose for the world, let my life today be the channel through which some little portion of your divine love and pity may reach the lives that are nearest to my own.

In your solemn presence, O God, I remember all my friends and neighbours, my fellow townsfolk, and especially the poor within our gates, beseeching you that you would give me grace, so far as in me lies, to serve them in your name.

O blessed Jesus, who used your own most precious life for the redemption of your human brothers and sisters, giving no thought to ease or pleasure or worldly enrichment, but filling up all your hours and days with deeds of self-denying love, give me grace today to follow the road you first trod; and to your name be all the glory and the praise, even unto the end. Amen.

—John Baillie. A Diary of Private Prayer (Oxford, 1936)

The Choir of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh, dir. Timothy Byram-Wigfield, perform 'How Lovely Are Thy Dwellings Fair', based on the fourth movement of Brahms' Requiem.

Ascension window, designed by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh.