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: Christ has appeared to us. Come let us adore him.

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. Alleluia.


HYMN

Christ is the world's light, he and none other
born in our darkness, he became our  brother;
if we have seen him, we have seen the Father
Glory to God on high.

Christ is the world's peace, he and none other
no man can serve him and despise his brother;
who else unites us, one in God the Father?
Glory to God on high.

Christ is the world's life, he  and none  other;
sold once for silver, murdered here, our brother -
he, who redeems us, reigns with God the Father
Glory to God on high.

Give  God the glory, God and none other;
give God the glory, Spirit, Son and Father;
give God the glory, God in man my brother;
Glory to God on high.
Text: F. Pratt Green; Melody: Christe Sanctorum; Midi: Cyberhymnal


PSALMODY

Antiphon 1: As morning breaks, we sing of your mercy, Lord, and night will find us proclaiming your fidelity.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to make music to your name, O Most High,
to proclaim your love in the morning
and your truth in the watches of the night,
on the ten-stringed lyre and the lute,
with the murmuring sound of the harp.

Your deeds, O Lord, have made me glad;
for the work of your hands I shout with joy.
O Lord, how great are your works!
How deep are your designs!
The foolish man cannot know this
and the fool cannot understand.

Though the wicked spring up like grass
and all who do evil thrive,
they are doomed to be eternally destroyed.
But you, Lord, are eternally on high.
See how your enemies perish;
all doers of evil are scattered.

To me you give the wild ox's strength;
you anoint me with the purest oil.
My eyes looked in triumph on my foes;
my ears heard gladly of their fall.
The just will flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a Lebanon cedar.

Planted in the house of the Lord
they will flourish in the courts of our God,
still bearing fruit when they are old,
still full of sap, still green,
to proclaim that the Lord is just.
In him, my rock, there is no wrong. Glory...

Psalm Prayer:Take our shame away from us, Lord, and make us rejoice in your saving works. May all who have been chosen by your Son always abound in works of faith, hope, and love in your service.

Antiphon 1 As morning breaks, we sing of your mercy, Lord, and night will find us proclaiming your fidelity.


Antiphon 2 Extol the greatness of our God.

Canticle  -  Deuteronomy 32:1-12
God's kindness to his people
How often have I longed to gather your children as a hen gathers her brood under her wing. (Matthew 23:37)

Give ear, O heavens, while I speak;
let the earth hearken to the words of my mouth!
May my instruction soak in like the rain,
and my discourse permeate like the dew,
Like a downpour upon the grass,
like a shower upon the crops.

For I will sing the Lord's renown.
Oh, proclaim the greatness of our God!
The Rock - how faultless are his deeds,
how right all his ways!
A faithful God, without deceit,
how just and upright he is!

Yet basely has he been treated by his degenerate children,
a perverse and crooked race!
Is the Lord to be thus repaid by you,
O stupid and foolish people?
Is he not your father who created you?
Has he not made you and established you?

Think back on the days of old,
reflect on the years of age upon age.
Ask your father and he will inform you,
ask your elders and they will tell you:

When the Most High assigned the nations their heritage,
when he parceled out the descendants of Adam,
He set up the boundaries of the peoples
after the number of the sons of God;
While the Lord's own portion was Jacob,
His hereditary share was Israel.

He found them in a wilderness,
a wasteland of howling desert.
He shielded them and cared for them,
guarding them as the apple of his eye.

As an eagle incites its nestlings forth
by hovering over its brood,
So he spread his wings to receive them
and bore them up on his pinions.
The Lord alone was their leader,
no strange god was with him. Glory...

Antiphon 2 Extol the greatness of our God.


Antiphon 3 How wonderful is your name, O Lord, in all creation.

Psalm 8
Praise for God's loving compassion
I affirm that...the Gentile peoples are to praise God because of his mercy (Romans 15:8-9)

How great is your name, O Lord our God,
through all the earth!

Your majesty is praised above the heavens;
on the lips of children and of babes
you have found praise to foil your enemy,
to silence the foe and the rebel.

When I see the heavens, the work of your hands,
the moon and the stars which you arranged,
what is man that you should keep him in mind,
mortal man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him little less than a god;
with glory and honor you crowned him,
gave him power over the works of your hands,
put all things under his feet.

All of them, sheep and cattle,
yes, even the savage beasts,
birds of the air, and fish
that make their way through the waters.

How great is your name, O Lord our God
through all the earth! Glory...

                            Christ, Son of God, hear us.

Son of God, you showed us the Father’s love,
- reveal him to men and women through the love we show toward one another.

You revealed yourself as Lord of life,
- now grant us the fullness of your life.

Let our bodies be signs of your life,
- as we bear your dying in our flesh.

Illuminate our hearts,
- with the brilliant knowledge of God’s light.


Our Father...


COLLECT
Almighty ever-living God,
who were pleased to shine forth with new light
through the coming of your Only Begotten Son,
grant, we pray,
that, just as he was pleased to share our bodily form
through the childbearing of the Virgin Mary,
so we, too, may one day merit
to become companions in his kingdom of grace.
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.