Lord, open my lips.
 - And my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Psalm 95 is the traditional Invitatory Psalm. Psalm 24, 67, or 100 may be substituted.

Antiphon: Come let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come.

Psalm 95

Psalm 24

Psalm 67

Psalm 100

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.


HYMN

On Jordan's Bank the Baptist's Cry

Or:


O God of truth, prepare our minds
to hear and heed your holy word.
Fill every heart that longs for You
with your mysterious presence, Lord.

Almighty Father, with your Son
and blessed Spirit, hear our prayer.
Teach us to love eternal truth
and seek its freedom everywhere.
Melody: Warrington LM, R. Harrison, 1810; Text: Stanbrook Abbey; Midi:Cyberhymnal


PSALMODY

Antiphon 1: Our God will be made manifest; he will not come in silence.

           I
The God of gods, the Lord,
has spoken and summoned the earth,
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Out of Zion's perfect beauty he shines.

Our God comes, he keeps silence no longer.

Before him fire devours,
around him tempest rages.
He calls on the heavens and the earth
to witness his judgment of his people.

"Summon before me my people
who made covenant with me by sacrifice."
The heavens proclaim his justice,
for he, God, is the judge. Glory...

Antiphon 1: Our God will be made manifest; he will not come in silence.


Antiphon 2: Offer to God the sacrifice of praise.

                      II
"Listen, my people, I will speak;
Israel, I will testify against you,
for I am God, your God.
I accuse you, lay the charge before you.

I find no fault with your sacrifices,
your offerings are always before me.
I do not ask more bullocks from your farms,
nor goats from among your herds.

For I own all the beasts of the forest,
beasts in their thousands on my hills.
I know all the birds in the sky,
all that moves in the field belongs to me.

Were I hungry, I would not tell you,
for I own the world and all it holds.
Do you think I eat the flesh of bulls,
or drink the blood of goats?

Pay your sacrifice of thanksgiving to God
and render him your votive offerings.
Call on me in the day of distress.
I will free and you shall honor me." Glory...

Antiphon 2: Offer to God the sacrifice of praise.


Antiphon 3: I want a loving heart more than sacrifice, knowledge of my ways more than holocausts.

                   III

But God says to the wicked:

"But how can you recite my commandments
and take my covenant on your lips,
you who despise my law
and throw my words to the winds,

you who see a thief and go with him;
who throw in your lot with adulterers,
who unbridle your mouth for evil
and whose tongue is plotting crime,

you who sit and malign your brother
and slander your own mother's son.
You do this, and should I keep silence?
Do you think that I am like you?

Mark this, you who never think of God,
lest I seize you and you cannot escape;
a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me
and I will show God's salvation to the upright." Glory....

Psalm Prayer:Father, accept us as a sacrifice of praise, so that we may go through life unburdened by sin, walking in the way of salvation, and always giving thanks to you.


Antiphon 3: I want a loving heart more than sacrifice, knowledge of my ways more than holocausts.


Lord, show us you mercy and love
- And grant us your salvation.


FIRST READING

From the book of the prophet Isaiah           30:18-26

The promise of future happiness

The Lord is waiting to show you favor,
  and he rises to pity you;
For the Lord is a God of justice:
  blessed are all who wait for him!

O people of Zion, who dwell in Jerusalem,
  no more will you weep;
He will be gracious to you when you cry out,
  as soon as he hears he will answer you.

The Lord will give you the bread you need
  and the water for which you thirst.
No longer will your Teacher hide himself,
  but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher,
While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears:
  "This is the way; walk in it,"
  when you would turn to the right or to the left.
And you shall consider unclean your silver-plated idols
  and your gold-covered images;
You shall throw them away like filthy rags
  to which you say, "Begone!"

He will give rain for the seed
  that you sow in the ground,
And the wheat that the soil produces
  will be rich and abundant.
On that day your cattle will graze
  in spacious meadows;
The oxen and the asses that till the ground
  will eat silage tossed to them
  with shovel and pitchfork.

Upon every high mountain and lofty hill
  there will be streams of running water.
On the day of the great slaughter,
  when the towers fall,
The light of the moon will be like that of the sun
  and the light of the sun will be seven times greater
  like the light of seven days.
On the day the Lord binds up the wounds of his people,
  he will heal the bruises left by his blows.


RESPONSORY           Is. 30:26, 18; Psalm 27:14
On the day the Lord will bind up the wounds of his people,
and God will heal the bruises left by the stroke of his judgment.
- Happy are all who await him.

Wait for the Lord, act courageously;
let your heart be strong and uphold the Lord,
- Happy are all who await him.


SECOND READING

From a discourse On the Contemplation of God by William of Saint Thierry, abbot
(Nn. 9-11; SC 61, 90-96)

He loved us first

Truly you alone are the Lord.  Your dominion is our salvation, for to serve you is nothing else but to be saved by you!  O Lord, salvation is your gift and your blessing is upon your people; what else is your salvation but receiving from you the gift of loving you or being loved by you?  That, Lord, is why you willed that the Son at your right hand, the One whom you made strong for yourself, should be called Jesus, that is to say, Savior, for he will save his people from their sins, and there is no other in whom there is salvation.  He taught us to love him by first loving us, even to death on the cross.  By loving us and holding us so dear, he stirred us to love him who had first loved us to the end.

And this is clearly the reason: you first loved us so that we might love you--not because you needed our love, but because we could not be what you created us to be, except by loving you.

In many ways and on various occasions you spoke to our fathers through the prophets.  Now in these last days you have spoken to us in the Son, your Word; by him the heavens were established and all their powers came to be by the breath of his mouth.

For you to speak thus in your Son was to bring out in the light of day how much and in what way you loved us, for you did not spare your own Son but delivered him up for us all.  He also loved us and gave himself up for us.

This, Lord, is your Word to us, this is your all-powerful message: while all things were in midnight silence (that is, were in the depths of error), he came from his royal throne, the stern conqueror of error and the gentle apostle of love.

Everything he did and everything he said on earth, even enduring the insults, the spitting, the buffeting--the cross and the grave--all of this was actually you speaking to us in your Son, appealing to us by your love and stirring up our love for you.

You know that this disposition could not be forced on our hearts, my God, since you created us; it must rather be elicited.  And this, for the further reason that there is no freedom where there is compulsion, and where freedom is lacking, so too is righteousness.

You wanted us to love you, then, we who could not with justice have been saved had we not loved you, nor could we have loved you except by your gift.  So, Lord, as the apostle of your love tells us, and as we have already said, you first loved us: you are first to love all those who love you.

Thus we hold you dear by the affection you have implanted in us.  You are the one supremely good and ultimate goodness.  Your love is your goodness, the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son!  From the beginning of creation it was he who hovered over the waters--that is, over the wavering minds of us all, offering himself to all, drawing all things to himself.  By his inspiration and holy breath, by keeping us from harm and providing for our needs, he unites God to us and us to God.


RESPONSORY           Isaiah 54:10
My mercy will not leave you,
and the covenant of my peace will not be changed;
- I shall make all your sons learned in the Lord,
and they shall enjoy a lasting peace.

I am the Lord your God who teaches you what is good
and guides you in the path you should walk.
- I shall make all your sons learned in the Lord,
and they shall enjoy a lasting peace.


COLLECT
Incline a merciful ear to our cry, we pray, O Lord,
and, casting light on the darkness of our hearts,
visit us with the grace of your Son.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.


May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.


The English translation of Psalm Responses, Alleluia Verses, Gospel Verses from Lectionary for Mass © 1969, 1981, 1997, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation (ICEL); the English translation of Antiphons, Invitatories, Responsories, Intercessions, Psalm 95, the Canticle of the Lamb, Psalm Prayers, Non-Biblical Readings from The Liturgy of the Hours © 1973, 1974, 1975, ICEL; excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 2010, ICEL. All rights reserved. Used with permission.