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 Christ the Lord, who for our sake endured temptation and suffering.

or:

Antiphon: Today if you hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts.

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

Antiphon 1: The Lord is just, he will defend the poor.

                    I
 

Lord, why do you stand afar off
and hide yourself in times of distress?
The poor man is devoured by the pride of the wicked:
he is caught in the schemes that others have made.

For the wicked man boasts of his heart's desires;
the covetous blasphemes and spurns the Lord.
In his pride the wicked says: "He will not punish.
There is no God." Such are his thoughts.

His path is ever untroubled;
your judgment is far from his mind.
His enemies he regards with contempt.
He thinks: "Never shall I falter:
misfortune shall never be my lot."

His mouth is full of cursing, guile, oppression;
mischief and deceit are under his tongue.
He lies in wait among the reeds;
the innocent he murders in secret.

His eyes are on the watch for the helpless man.
He lurks in hiding like a lion in his lair;
he lurks in hiding to seize the poor;
he seizes the poor man and drags him away.

He crouches, preparing to spring,
and the helpless fall beneath such strength.
He thinks in his heart: "God forgets,
he hides his face, he does not see."

Arise then, Lord, lift up your hand!
O God, do not forget the poor!
Why should the wicked spurn the Lord
and think in his heart: "God will not punish"?

But you have seen the trouble and sorrow,
you note it, you take it in hand.
The helpless trusts himself to you;
for you are the helper of the orphan.

Break the power of the wicked and the sinner!
Punish their wickedness till nothing remains!
The Lord is king for ever and ever.
The heathen shall perish from the land he rules.

Lord, you hear the prayer of the poor;
you strengthen their hearts; you turn your ear
to protect the rights of the orphan and oppressed:
so that mortal man may strike terror no more. Glory...

Psalm Prayer: Rise up, Lord, in defense of your people, do not hide your face from our troubles. Father of orphans, wealth of the poor, we rejoice in making you known; may we find comfort and security in times of pain and anxiety.

Antiphon 2 Lord, you know the burden of my sorrow.


Antiphon 3 The words of the Lord are true, like silver from the furnace.

May the Lord destroy all lying lips,
the tongue that speaks high-sounding words,
those who say: "Our tongue is our strength;
our lips are our own, who is our master?"

"For the poor who are oppressed and the needy who groan
I myself will arise," says the Lord,
"I will grant them the salvation for which they thirst."

The words of the Lord are words without alloy,
silver from the furnace, seven times refined.

It is you, O Lord, who will take us in your care
and protect us for ever from this generation.
See how the wicked prowl on every side,
while the worthless are prized highly by the sons of men. Glory....

Psalm Prayer: Your light is true light, Lord, and your truth shines like the day. Direct us to salvation through your life-giving words. May we be saved by always embracing your word.

Antiphon 3 The words of the Lord are true, like silver from the furnace.


This is the favorable time.
- This is the day of salvation.


FIRST READING

From the book of Exodus       6:29-7:25

The first plague sent upon Egypt

The Lord spoke to Moses saying, "I am the Lord. Repeat to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I tell you." But Moses protested to the Lord, "Since I am a poor speaker, how can it be that Pharaoh will listen to me?"

The Lord answered him, "See! I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall act as your prophet. You shall tell him all that I command you. In turn, your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave his land. Yet I will make Pharaoh so obstinate that, despite the many signs and wonders that I will work in the land of Egypt, he will not listen to you. Therefore I will lay my hand on Egypt and by great acts of judgment I will bring the hosts of my people, the Israelites, out of the land of Egypt, so that the Egyptians may learn that I am the Lord, as I stretch out my hand against Egypt and lead the Israelites out of their midst."

Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had commanded them. Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.

The Lord told Moses and Aaron, "If Pharaoh demands that you work a sign or wonder, you shall say to Aaron: Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will be changed into a snake." Then Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did as the Lord had commanded. Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it was changed into a snake. Pharaoh, in turn, summoned wise men and sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did likewise by their magic arts. Each one threw down his staff, and it was changed into a snake. But Aaron's staff swallowed their staffs. Pharaoh, however, was obstinate and would not listen to them, just as the Lord had foretold.  

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Pharaoh is obdurate in refusing to let the people go. Tomorrow morning, when he sets out for the water, go and present yourself by the river bank, holding in your hand the staff that turned into a serpent. Say to him: The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you with the message: Let my people go to worship me in the desert. But as yet you have not listened. The Lord now says: This is how you shall know that I am the Lord. I will strike the water of the river with the staff I hold, and it shall be changed into blood. The fish in the river shall die, and the river itself shall become so polluted that the Egyptians will be unable to drink its water."

The Lord then said to Moses, "Say to Aaron: Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt--their streams and canals and pools, all their supplies of water--that they may become blood. Throughout the land of Egypt there shall be blood, even in the wooden pails and stone jars."

Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had commanded. Aaron raised his staff and struck the waters of the river in full view of Pharaoh and his servants, and all the water of the river was changed into blood. The fish in the river died, and the river itself became so polluted that the Egyptians could not drink its water. There was blood throughout the land of Egypt.

But the Egyptian magicians did the same by their magic arts. So Pharaoh remained obstinate and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had foretold. He turned away and went into his house, with no concern even for this. All the Egyptians had to dig in the neighborhood of the river for drinking water, since they could not drink the river water. Seven days passed after the Lord had struck the river.


RESPONSORY          Revelation 16:4-5,6,7
The angel poured out the phial into the river,
and the waters turned into blood.
Then I heard him cry:
You are just, O Holy One,
and just is the punishment you have decreed.
 - These men have spilled the blood of the saints and prophets.

Then I heard another angel cry from the altar:
Lord God Almighty, your judgments are true and just.
 - These men have spilled the blood of the saints and prophets.


SECOND READING

From a treatise on the Lord's Prayer by Saint Cyprian, bishop and martyr
(Cap 1-3: SCEL 3, 267-268),

He has given us life; he has also taught us how to pray

Dear brothers, the commands of the Gospel are nothing else than God’s lessons, the foundations on which to build up hope, the supports for strengthening faith, the food that nourishes the heart.  They are the rudder for keeping us on the right course, the protection that keeps our salvation secure. As they instruct the receptive minds of believers on earth, they lead safely to the kingdom of heaven.

God willed that many things should be said by the prophets, his servants, and listened to by his people.  How much greater are the things spoken by the Son.  These are now witnessed to by the very word of God who spoke through the prophets.  The Word of God does not now command us to prepare the way for his coming: he comes in person and opens up the way for us and directs us toward it.  Before, we wandered in the darkness of death, aimlessly and blindly.  Now we are enlightened by the light of grace, and are to keep to the highway of life, with the Lord to precede and direct us.

The Lord has given us many counsels and commandments to help us toward salvation.  He has even given us a pattern of prayer, instructing us on how we are to pray.  He has given us life, and with his accustomed generosity, he has also taught us how to pray.  He has made it easy for us to be heard as we pray to the Father in the words taught us by the Son.

He has already foretold that the hour was coming when true worshipers would worship the Father in spirit and in truth.  He fulfilled what he had promised before, so that we who have received the spirit and the truth through the holiness he has give us may worship in truth and in the spirit through the prayer he has taught.

What prayer could be more a prayer in the spirit than the one given us by Christ, by whom the Holy Spirit was sent upon us?  What prayer could be more a prayer in the truth than the one spoken by the lips of the Son, who is truth himself?  It follows that to pray in any other way than the Son has taught us is not only the result of ignorance but of sin.  He himself has commanded it, and has said: You reject the command of God, to set up your own tradition.

So, my brothers, let us pray as God our master has taught us.  To ask theFather in words his Son has given us, to let him hear the prayer of Christ ringing in his ears, is to make our prayer one of friendship, a family prayer. Let the Father recognize the words of his Son.  Let the son who lives in our hearts be also on our lips.  We have him as an advocate for sinners  before the Father; when we ask for forgiveness for ours sins, let us use the words given by our advocate.  He tells us: Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.  What more effective prayer could we then make in the name of Christ than in the words of his own prayer?


RESPONSORY          John 16:24; 14:13
Until now you have asked for nothing in my name,
 - ask and you will receive that your joy may be full.

Whatever you ask the Father in my name I will give you,
that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
 - Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full.


COLLECT
Look upon your family, Lord,
that, through the chastening effects of bodily discipline,
our minds may be radiant in your presence
with the strength of our yearning for you.
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.


Let us praise the Lord.
- And give him thanks.




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.