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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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
During the night or at dawn:
As the cock’rel with his crowing
cleaves the darkness of the night
and relieves the fearful terror
of the night’s most gloomy hour,
we invoke you, God all-loving,
as we pray with humble heart.
While the midnight silence shrouded
and encompassed ev’rything,
while, indeed, all sleeping mortals
showed a likeness to the dead,
you descended, Light and Power,
watchful guardian of our kind,
That, O Christ, you might arouse us
from the sleep of vice and sin,
and release us by your favor
from the prison of our night,
then restore us to your friendship
in your endless light of life.
Praise to you and to the Father,
honor to the Spirit blest,
to the name beyond all sweetness,
to the holy will divine,
God of peace and life and splendor,
wholly One yet perfect Three. Amen.
Tune: PICARDY, 8 7 8 7 8 7
Music: from Julian Tiersot’s Mélodies populaires des provinces de France, 1887
or Mode II, melody 34; Liber Hymnarius, Solesmes, 1983*
Text: Galli cantu mediante, Gottschalk of Fulda, O. S. B., ca. 808-868, © 2023 ICEL
During the day:
Draw near, Creator of the world
and glory of the Father’s light,
for when your grace is far from us,
our hearts begin to be alarmed.
Lord, may your Spirit fill our breast
to bear and cherish God within,
preserving us from dread deceit
and cunning of the grasping foe,
That in the midst of life’s demands
which claim our actions in this world,
we may be free from ev’ry sin
and live according to your laws.
O Christ, to you, most loving King,
and to the Father glory be,
one with the Spirit Paraclete,
from age to age for evermore. Amen.
Tune: ABENDS, 8 8 8 8
Music: Herbert Stanley Oakley, 1830-1903
or Mode II, melody 43; Liber Hymnarius, Solesmes, 1983
Text: Adesto rerum conditor, before 6th c., © 2023 ICEL
PSALMODY
Ant. 1 Lord, in your anger, do not punish me.
Psalm 38
A sinner in extreme danger prays earnestly to God
All his friends were standing at a distance (Luke 23:49).
I
O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger; *
do not punish me, Lord, in your rage.
Your arrows have sunk deep in me; *
your hand has come down upon me.
Through your anger all my body is sick: *
through my sin, there is no health in my limbs.
My guilt towers higher than my head; *
it is a weight too heavy to bear.
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, in your anger, do not punish me.
Ant. 2 Lord, you know all my longings.
II
My wounds are foul and festering, *
the result of my own folly.
I am bowed and brought to my knees. *
I go mourning all the day long.
All my frame burns with fever; *
all my body is sick.
Spent and utterly crushed, *
I cry aloud in anguish of heart.
O Lord, you know all my longing: *
my groans are not hidden from you.
My heart throbs, my strength is spent; *
the very light has gone from my eyes.
My friends avoid me like a leper; *
those closest to me stand afar off.
Those who plot against my life lay snares; †
those who seek my ruin speak of harm, *
planning treachery all the day long.
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 know all my longings.
Ant. 3 I confess my guilt to you, Lord; do not abandon me, for you are my savior.
III
But I am like the deaf who cannot hear, *
like the dumb unable to speak.
I am like a man who hears nothing, *
in whose mouth is no defense.
I count on you, O Lord: *
it is you, Lord God, who will answer.
I pray: “Do not let them mock me, *
those who triumph if my foot should slip.”
For I am on the point of falling *
and my pain is always before me.
I confess that I am guilty *
and my sin fills me with dismay.
My wanton enemies are numberless *
and my lying foes are many.
They repay me evil for good *
and attack me for seeking what is right.
O Lord, do not forsake me! *
My God, do not stay afar off!
Make haste and come to my help, *
O Lord, my God, my savior!
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
Do not abandon us, Lord our God; you did not forget the broken body of your Christ, nor the mockery his love received. We, your children, are weighed down with sin; give us the fullness of your mercy.
Ant. I confess my guilt to you, Lord; do not abandon me, for you are my savior.
My eyes keep watch for your saving help.
— Awaiting the word that will justify me.
READINGS
FIRST READING
From book of Deuteronomy
10:12—11:9, 26-28
God alone decides
Moses spoke to the people, saying:
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord, your God, ask of you but to fear the Lord, your God, and follow his ways exactly, to love and serve the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul, to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord which I enjoin on you today for your own good? Think! The heavens, even the highest heavens, belong to the Lord, your God, as well as the earth and everything on it. Yet in his love for your fathers the Lord was so attached to them as to choose you, their descendants, in preference to all other peoples, as indeed he has now done.
“Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and be no longer stiff-necked. For the Lord, your God, is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who has no favorites, accepts no bribes; who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him. So you too must befriend the alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. The Lord, your God, shall you fear, and him shall you serve; hold fast to him and swear by his name. He is your glory, he, your God, who has done for you those great and terrible things which your own eyes have seen. Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy strong, and now the Lord, your God, has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky.
“Love the Lord, your God, therefore, and always heed his charge: his statutes, decrees and commandments.
“It is not your children, who have not known it from experience, but you yourselves who must now understand the discipline of the Lord, your God; his majesty, his strong hand and outstretched arm; the signs and deeds he wrought among the Egyptians, on Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and on all his land; what he did to the Egyptian army and to their horses and chariots, engulfing them in the water of the Red Sea as they pursued you, and bringing ruin upon them even to this day; what he did for you in the desert until you arrived in this place; and what he did to the Reubenites Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, when the ground opened its mouth and swallowed them up out of the midst of Israel, with their families and tents and every living thing that belonged to them.
“With your own eyes you have seen all these great deeds that the Lord has done. Keep all the commandments, then, which I enjoin on you today, that you may be strong enough to enter in and take possession of the land into which you are crossing, and that you may have long life on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers he would give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
“I set before you here, this day, a blessing and a curse: a blessing for obeying the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I enjoin on you today; a curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, but turn aside from the way I ordain for you today, to follow other gods, whom you have not known.”
RESPONSORY
1 John 4:19; 5:3; 2:5
Let us love God, for he first loved us.
To love God means keeping his commandments,
— and his commandments are not burdensome.
The love of God reaches perfection
in those who are obedient to his word.
— And his commandments are not burdensome.
SECOND READING
From the treatise On Spiritual Perfection by Diadochus of Photice, bishop
(Cap. 12, 13, 14: PG 65, 1171-1172)
All our love must be for God
No one who is in love with himself is capable of loving God. The man who loves God is the one who mortifies his self-love for the sake of the immeasurable blessings of divine love. Such a man never seeks his own glory but only the glory of God. If a person loves himself he seeks his own glory, but the man who loves God loves the glory of his Creator. Anyone alive to the love of God can be recognized from the way he constantly strives to glorify him by fulfilling all his commandments and by delighting in his own abasement. Because of his great majesty it is fitting that God should receive glory, but if he hopes to win God’s favor it becomes man to be humble. If we possess this love for God, we too will rejoice in his glory as Saint John the Baptist did, and we shall never stop repeating: His fame must increase, but mine must diminish.
I know a man who, though lamenting his failure to love God as much as he desires, yet loves him so much that his soul burns with ceaseless longing for God to be glorified, and for his own complete effacement. This man has no feeling of self importance even when he receives praise. So deep is his desire to humble himself that he never even thinks of his own dignity. He fulfills his priestly duty by celebrating the Liturgy, but his intense love for God is an abyss that swallows up all consciousness of his high office. His humility makes him oblivious of any honor it might bring him, so that in his own estimation he is never anything but a useless servant. Because of his desire for self abasement, he regards himself as though degraded from his office. His example is one that we ourselves should follow by fleeing from all honor and glory for the sake of the immeasurable blessings of God’s love, for he has loved us so much!
Anyone who loves God in the depths of his heart has already been loved by God. In fact, the measure of a man’s love for God depends upon how deeply aware he is of God’s love for him. When this awareness is keen it makes whoever possesses it long to be enlightened by the divine light, and this longing is so intense that it seems to penetrate his very bones. He loses all consciousness of himself and is entirely transformed by the love of God.
Such a man lives in this life and at the same time does not live in it, for although he still inhabits his body, he is constantly leaving it in spirit because of the love that draws him toward God. Once the love of God has released him from self-love, the flame of divine love never ceases to burn in his heart and he remains united to God by an irresistible longing. As the Apostle says: If we are taken out of ourselves it is for the love of God; if we are brought back to our senses it is for your sake.
RESPONSORY
John 3:16; 1 John 4:10
God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son
— so that all who believe in him may not die but may have eternal life.
This is the meaning of love:
we did not love God;
he has loved us.
— So that all who believe in him may not die but may have eternal life.
CONCLUDING PRAYER
Let us pray.
Father of heaven and earth,
hear our prayers,
and show us the way to peace in the world.
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:
Almighty ever-living God,
who govern all things,
both in heaven and on earth,
mercifully hear the pleading of your people
and bestow your peace on our times.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
O gates, lift high your heads; †
grow higher, ancient doors. *
Let him enter, the king of glory!
Ant. Come, let us praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
Who is the king of glory? †
The Lord, the mighty, the valiant, *
the Lord, the valiant in war.
Ant. Come, let us praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
O gates, lift high your heads; †
grow higher, ancient doors. *
Let him enter, the king of glory!
Ant. Come, let us praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
Who is he, the king of glory? †
He, the Lord of armies, *
he is the king of glory.
Ant. Come, let us praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.
Ant. Come, let us praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.
Ant. Come, let us praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
Indeed, how good is the Lord, †
eternal his merciful love. *
He is faithful from age to age.
Ant. Come, let us praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.
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 praise the Lord; in him is all our delight.