Evening Prayer

John 1:1-18 or 1:1-5, 9-141 In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God.2 He was with God in the beginning.3 Through him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through him.4 What has come into being in him was life, life that was the light of men;5 and light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it.6 A man came, sent by God. His name was John.7 He came as a witness, to bear witness to the light, so that everyone might believe through him.8 He was not the light, he was to bear witness to the light.9 The Word was the real light that gives light to everyone; he was coming into the world.10 He was in the world that had come into being through him, and the world did not recognise him.11 He came to his own and his own people did not accept him.12 But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believed in his name13 who were born not from human stock or human desire or human will but from God himself.14 The Word became flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory, the glory that he has from the Father as only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.15 John witnesses to him. He proclaims: 'This is the one of whom I said: He who comes after me has passed ahead of me because he existed before me.'16 Indeed, from his fullness we have, all of us, received -- one gift replacing another,17 for the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.18 No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.