In those places where this Memorial is observed as a Solemnity or Feast, please use the texts found in the Common of Virgins or the Common of Doctors of the Church with the proper texts below.
INVITATORY
The Invitatory is said when this is the first ‘hour’ of the day.
Lord, + open my lips.
— And my mouth will proclaim your praise.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
The antiphon is repeated. In individual recitation, the antiphon may be said only at the beginning of the psalm; it need not be repeated after each strophe.
Psalm 95
A call to praise God
Encourage each other daily while it is still today (Hebrews 3:13).
Come, let us sing to the Lord *
and shout with joy to the Rock who saves us.
Let us approach him with praise and thanksgiving *
and sing joyful songs to the Lord.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
The Lord is God, the mighty God, *
the great king over all the gods.
He holds in his hands the depths of the earth *
and the highest mountains as well.
He made the sea; it belongs to him, *
the dry land, too, for it was formed by his hands.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
Come, then, let us bow down and worship, *
bending the knee before the Lord, our maker.
For he is our God and we are his people, *
the flock he shepherds.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
Today, listen to the voice of the Lord: †
Do not grow stubborn, as your fathers did
in the wilderness, *
when at Meriba and Massah
they challenged me and provoked me, *
Although they had seen all of my works.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
Forty years I endured that generation. *
I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray
and they do not know my ways.”
So I swore in my anger, *
“They shall not enter into my rest.”
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed 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 for ever. Amen.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
If the Invitatory is not said, then the following is used:
God, + come to my assistance.
— Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
— as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Alleluia.
HYMN
[Doctors]
Eternal Sun, whose splendid rays,
pervading all created things,
infuse our minds with heav’nly light;
our hearts rejoice to sing your praise.
Enkindled by your Spirit’s care,
resplendent lamps of living flame
shed light on earth through ev’ry age,
revealing paths that save and heal.
The truth of words from heaven sent,
the truth that human minds can teach,
has shone with new and clearer light
through these, the stewards of your grace.
This blest partaker of their crown,
revered for teachings filled with light,
whom we acclaim with hymns of praise,
has shone in splendor with the saints.
O grant us, Lord our God, we pray
this teacher’s loving patronage,
that, running on the paths of truth,
we hold the course and come to you.
Most loving Father, hear our prayer,
and you, O Christ coequal Son,
who with the Spirit Paraclete
now reign for all eternity. Amen.
Tune: MELCOMBE, 8 8 8 8
Music: Samuel Webbe the elder, 1740-1816
or Mode IV, melody 84; Liber Hymnarius, Solesmes, 1983
Text: Æterne sol, qui lumine, Anselmo Lentini, O.S.B., 1901-1989, © 2023 ICEL
[Virgins]
God’s faithful people celebrate
with solemn worship, sweetest hymns,
as in the heights of heav’n above
this Virgin shines with glorious light.
She freely gave herself to Christ
with strength and zeal to sing his praise,
and now she finds unending joy
united to the host of saints.
By chastity she overcame
the faults and weakness of the flesh;
she spurned the pleasures of the world
to follow Christ along his paths.
O Christ, instruct us by her life
and keep us safe from all our foes;
correct our failings when we sin,
and plant your virtue in our hearts.
To you, Lord Jesus, glory be,
who are the Virgin Mary’s Son,
with God the Father, ever blest,
and loving Spirit, evermore. Amen.
Tune: HEREFORD, 8 8 8 8
Music: Samel Sebastian Wesley, 1810-1876
or Mode VIII, melody 100; Liber Hymnarius, Solesmes, 1983
Text: Dulci depromat carmine, ca. 15th c., © 2023 ICEL
PSALMODY
Ant. 1 Lord, you are our savior; we will praise you for ever.
Psalm 44
The misfortune of God’s people
We triumph over all these things through him who loved us (Romans 8:37).
I
We heard with our own ears, O God, *
our fathers have told us the story
of the things you did in their days, *
you yourself, in days long ago.
To plant them you uprooted the nations: *
to let them spread you laid peoples low.
No sword of their own won the land; *
no arm of their own brought them victory.
It was your right hand, your arm *
and the light of your face: for you loved them.
It is you, my king, my God, *
who granted victories to Jacob.
Through you we beat down our foes; *
in your name we trampled down our aggressors.
For it was not in my bow that I trusted *
nor yet was I saved by my sword:
it was you who saved us from our foes, *
it was you who put our foes to shame.
All day long our boast was in God *
and we praised your name without ceasing.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, *
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, *
and will be for ever. Amen.
Ant. Lord, you are our savior; we will praise you for ever.
Ant. 2 Spare us, O Lord; do not bring your own people into contempt.
II
Yet now you have rejected us, disgraced us: *
you no longer go forth with our armies.
You make us retreat from the foe *
and our enemies plunder us at will.
You make us like sheep for the slaughter *
and scatter us among the nations.
You sell your own people for nothing *
and make no profit by the sale.
You make us the taunt of our neighbors, *
the laughing stock of all who are near.
Among the nations, you make us a byword, *
among the peoples a thing of derision.
All day long my disgrace is before me: *
my face is covered with shame
at the voice of the taunter, the scoffer, *
at the sight of the foe and avenger.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, *
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, *
and will be for ever. Amen.
Ant. Spare us, O Lord; do not bring your own people into contempt.
Ant. 3 Rise up, O Lord, and save us, for you are merciful.
III
This befell us though we had not forgotten you; *
though we had not been false to your covenant,
though we had not withdrawn our hearts; *
though our feet had not strayed from your path.
Yet you have crushed us in a place of sorrows *
and covered us with the shadow of death.
Had we forgotten the name of our God *
or stretched out our hands to another god
would not God have found this out, *
he who knows the secrets of the heart?
It is for you that we face death all day long *
and are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
Awake, O Lord, why do you sleep? *
Arise, do not reject us for ever!
Why do you hide your face from us *
and forget our oppression and misery?
For we are brought down low to the dust; *
our body lies prostrate on the earth.
Stand up and come to our help! *
Redeem us because of your love!
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, *
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, *
and will be for ever. Amen.
Psalm Prayer
Lord, rise up and come to our aid; with your strong arm lead us to freedom, as you mightily delivered our forefathers. Since you are the king who knows the secrets of our hearts, fill them with the light of truth.
Ant. Rise up, O Lord, and save us, for you are merciful.
Lord, to whom shall we go?
— You have the words of eternal life.
READINGS
FIRST READING
From the letter of the apostle Paul to the Philippians
3:1-16
The example of Paul
Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. Writing the same things to you is no burden for me but is a safeguard for you.
Beware of the dogs! Beware of the evil workers! Beware of the mutilation! For we are the circumcision, we who worship through the Spirit of God, who boast in Christ Jesus and do not put our confidence in flesh, although I myself have grounds for confidence even in the flesh.
If anyone else thinks he can be confident in flesh, all the more can I. Circumcised on the eighth day, of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrew parentage, in observance of the law a Pharisee, in zeal I persecuted the church, in righteousness based on the law I was blameless.
But whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God, depending on faith to know him and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
It is not that I have already taken hold of it or have already attained perfect maturity, but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it, since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession. Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.
Let us, then, who are “perfectly mature” adopt this attitude. And if you have a different attitude, this too God will reveal to you. Only, with regard to what we have attained, continue on the same course.
RESPONSORY
Philippians 3:8, 10; Romans 6:8
I have counted all things worthless
so that I might gain Christ.
— I wish to know Christ and the power of his resurrection,
and to be one with him in his sufferings.
We believe that if we die with Christ,
we shall also live with him.
— I wish to know Christ and the power of his resurrection,
and to be one with him in his sufferings.
SECOND READING
From the autobiography of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, virgin
(Manuscrit autobiographiques, Lisieux 1957, 227-229)
In the heart of the Church I will be love
Since my longing for martyrdom was powerful and unsettling, I turned to the epistles of Saint Paul in the hope of finally finding an answer. By chance the twelfth and thirteenth chapters of the first epistle to the Corinthians caught my attention, and in the first section I read that not everyone can be an apostle, prophet or teacher, that the Church is composed of a variety of members, and that the eye cannot be the hand. Even with such an answer revealed before me, I was not satisfied and did not find peace.
I persevered in the reading and did not let my mind wander until I found this encouraging theme: Set your desires on the greater gifts. And I will show you the way which surpasses all others. For the Apostle insists that the greater gifts are nothing at all without love and that this same love is surely the best path leading directly to God. At length I had found peace of mind.
When I had looked upon the mystical body of the Church, I recognized myself in none of the members which Saint Paul described, and what is more, I desired to distinguish myself more favorably within the whole body. Love appeared to me to be the hinge for my vocation. Indeed I knew that the Church had a body composed of various members, but in this body the necessary and more noble member was not lacking; I knew that the Church had a heart and that such a heart appeared to be aflame with love. I knew that one love drove the members of the Church to action, that if this love were extinguished, the apostles would have proclaimed the Gospel no longer, the martyrs would have shed their blood no more. I saw and realized that love sets off the bounds of all vocations, that love is everything, that this same love embraces every time and every place. In one word, that love is everlasting.
Then, nearly ecstatic with the supreme joy in my soul, I proclaimed: O Jesus, my love, at last I have found my calling: my call is love. Certainly I have found my place in the Church, and you gave me that very place, my God. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and thus I will be all things, as my desire finds its direction.
RESPONSORY
See Psalm 21:4; Job 31:18; Ephesians 3:18; Psalm 31:20
From the very beginning, O God, you came to me with your love,
which has grown since my childhood.
— Its depths I cannot fully grasp.
O Lord, how great is the goodness
you have stored up for those who fear you.
— Its depths I cannot fully grasp.
CONCLUDING PRAYER
Let us pray.
God our Father,
you have promised your kingdom
to those who are willing to become like little children.
Help us to follow the way of Saint Thérèse with confidence
so that by her prayers,
we may come to know your eternal glory.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
— Amen.
Or:
O God, who open your Kingdom
to those who are humble and to little ones,
lead us to follow trustingly in the little way of Saint Thérèse,
so that through her intercession
we may see your eternal glory revealed.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
— Amen.
ACCLAMATION
Let us praise the Lord.
— And give him thanks.
******
Psalm 24
The Lord’s entry into his temple
Christ opened heaven for us in the manhood he assumed (Saint Irenaeus).
The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness, *
the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas; *
on the waters he made it firm.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord? *
Who shall stand in his holy place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart, †
who desires not worthless things, *
who has not sworn so as to deceive his neighbor.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
He shall receive blessings from the Lord *
and reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who seek him, *
seek the face of the God of Jacob.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
O gates, lift high your heads; †
grow higher, ancient doors. *
Let him enter, the king of glory!
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
Who is the king of glory? †
The Lord, the mighty, the valiant, *
the Lord, the valiant in war.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
O gates, lift high your heads; †
grow higher, ancient doors. *
Let him enter, the king of glory!
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
Who is he, the king of glory? †
He, the Lord of armies, *
he is the king of glory.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed 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 for ever. Amen.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
Psalm 67
People of all nations will worship the Lord
You must know that God is offering his salvation to all the world (Acts 28:28).
O God, be gracious and bless us *
and let your face shed its light upon us.
So will your ways be known upon earth *
and all nations learn your saving help.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
Let the nations be glad and exult *
for you rule the world with justice.
With fairness you rule the peoples, *
you guide the nations on earth.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
The earth has yielded its fruit *
for God, our God, has blessed us.
May God still give us his blessing *
till the ends of the earth revere him.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed 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 for ever. Amen.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
Psalm 100
The joyful song of those entering God’s temple
The Lord calls his ransomed people to sing songs of victory (Saint Athanasius).
Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth. †
Serve the Lord with gladness. *
Come before him, singing for joy.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
Know that he, the Lord, is God. †
He made us, we belong to him, *
we are his people, the sheep of his flock.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
Go within his gates, giving thanks. †
Enter his courts with songs of praise. *
Give thanks to him and bless his name.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.
Indeed, how good is the Lord, †
eternal his merciful love. *
He is faithful from age to age.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed 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 for ever. Amen.
Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, fount of all wisdom.
Or: The holy virgins praise their Lord and King; come, let us join in their worship.
Or: Come, let us worship the Lamb with the virgins who followed him.