HYMN

Psalms of the Day

Reading
Joel 2:17a

Between the porch and the altar
  let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep,
And say, "Spare, O LORD, your people,
  and make not your heritage a reproach,
  with the nations ruling over them!"

Create in me a clean heart, O God.
 - Renew in me a steadfast spirit.

COLLECT
May the venerable exercises of holy devotion
shape the hearts of your faithful, O Lord,
to welcome worthily the Paschal Mystery
and proclaim the praises of your salvation.
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.

Antiphon: As I live, says the Lord, I do not wish the sinner to die, but to turn back to me and live.

Psalms of the Day

Reading
Jeremiah 3:25b

We have sinned against the Lord, our God,
From our youth to this day,
  we and our fathers also;
  we listened not to the voice of the Lord, our God.

Turn away your face from my sins.
 - Blot out all my guilt.

COLLECT
May the venerable exercises of holy devotion
shape the hearts of your faithful, O Lord,
to welcome worthily the Paschal Mystery
and proclaim the praises of your salvation.
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.

Antiphon: Armed with God's justice and power, let us prove ourselves through patient endurance.

Psalms of the Day

Reading
Isaiah 58:1-2

Cry out full-throated and unsparingly,
  lift up your voice like a trumpet blast;
Tell my people their wickedness,
  and the house of Jacob their sins.
They seek me day after day,
  and desire to know my ways,
Like a nation that has done what is just
  and not abandoned the law of their God.

My sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit.
 - A humble contrite heart, O God, you will not spurn.

COLLECT
May the venerable exercises of holy devotion
shape the hearts of your faithful, O Lord,
to welcome worthily the Paschal Mystery
and proclaim the praises of your salvation.
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.


At one of the hours, the psalms are said as below. At the other hours, the complementary psalms are used.

PSALMODY

Lord, you are just indeed;
your decrees are right.
You have imposed your will with justice
and with absolute truth.

I am carried away by anger
for my foes forget your word.
Your promise is tried in the fire,
the delight of your servant.

Although I am weak and despised,
I remember your precepts.
Your justice is eternal justice
and your law is truth.

Though anguish and distress have seized me,
I delight in your commands.
The justice of your will is eternal:
if you teach me I shall live.  Glory...

Psalm Prayer: You are just indeed, Lord, and your commandments are eternal. Teach us to love you with all our hearts and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

                         I
Lord my God, I call for help by day;
I cry at night before you.
Let my prayer come into your presence.
O turn your ear to my cry.

For my soul is filled with evils;
my life is on the brink of the grave.
I am reckoned as one in the tomb;
I have reached the end of my strength,

Like one alone among the dead,
like the slain lying in their graves,
like those you remember no more,
cut off, as they are, from your hand.

You have laid me in the depths of the tomb,
in places that are dark, in the depths.
Your anger weighs down upon me;
I am drowned beneath your waves.  Glory...

                      II
You have taken away my friends
and made me hateful in their sight.
Imprisoned, I cannot escape;
my eyes are sunken with grief.

I call to you, Lord, all the day long;
to you I stretch out my hands.
Will you work your wonders for the dead?
Will the shades stand and praise you?

Will your love be told in the grave
or your faithfulness among the dead?
Will your wonders be known in the dark
or your justice in the land of oblivion?

As for me, Lord, I call to you for help;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
Lord, why do you reject me?
Why do you hide your face?

Wretched, close to death from my youth,
I have borne your trials; I am numb.
Your fury has swept down upon me;
your terrors have utterly destroyed me.

They surround me all the day like a flood,
they assail me all together.
Friend and neighbor you have taken away:
my one companion is darkness.   Glory....

Psalm Prayer: Lord Jesus, redeemer of all and author of our salvation, for us you went down to the realm of death and became free of death. Hear the prayers of our family and lift us from our slavery to evil, that we may be redeemed by you and see your Father's glory.