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 give thanks to the Lord, for his great love is without end.

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

In ancient times God spoke to man
through prophets and in varied ways
But now he speaks through Christ his Son
His radiance through eternal days.

To God the Father of the world
His Son through whom he made all things,
and Holy Spirit, bond of love,
All glad creation glory sings.
Text: Stanbrook Abbey; Melody: Herr Jesu Christ


PSALMODY

Antiphon 1: I am worn out with crying, with longing for my God.

                    I
Save me, O God,
for the waters have risen to my neck.

I have sunk into the mud of the deep
and there is no foothold.
I have entered the waters of the deep
and the waves overwhelm me.

I am wearied with all my crying,
my throat is parched.
My eyes are wasted away
from looking for my God.

More numerous than the hairs on my head
are those who hate me without cause.
Those who attack me with lies
are too much for my strength.

How can I restore
what I have never stolen?
O God, you know my sinful folly;
my sins you can see.

Let not those who hope in you be put to shame
through me, Lord of hosts:
let not those who seek you be dismayed
through me, God of Israel.

It is for you that I suffer taunts,
that shame covers my face,
that I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my own mother's sons.
I burn with zeal for your house
and taunts against you fall on me.

When I afflict my soul with fasting
they make it a taunt against me.
When I put on sackcloth and mourning
then they make me a byword,
the gossip of men at the gates,
the subject of drunkard's songs.  Glory...

Antiphon 1 I am worn out with crying, with longing for my God.


Antiphon 2 I needed food and they gave me gall; I was parched with thirst and they gave me vinegar.

                   II
This is my prayer to you,
my pray for your favor.
In your great love, answer me, O God,
with your help that never fails;
rescue me from sinking in the mud,
save me from my foes.

Save me from the waters of the deep
lest the waves overwhelm me.
Do not let the deep engulf me
nor death close its mouth on me.

Lord, answer, for your love is kind;
in your compassion, turn towards me.
Do not hide your face from your servant;
answer me quickly for I am in distress.
Come close to my soul and redeem me;
ransom me pressed by my foes.

You know how they taunt and deride me;
my oppressors are all before you.
Taunts have broken my heart;
I have reached the end of my strength.
I looked in vain for compassion, for consolers;
not one could I find.

For food they gave me poison;
in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.  Glory...

Antiphon 2 I needed food and they gave me gall; I was parched with thirst and they gave me vinegar.


Antiphon 3 Seek the Lord and you will live.

                   III
As for me in my poverty and pain,
let your help, O God, lift me up.

I will praise God's name with a song;
I will glorify him with thanksgiving.
A gift pleasing God more than oxen,
more than beasts prepared for sacrifice.

The poor when they see it will be glad
and God-seeking hearts will revive;
for the Lord listens to the needy
and does not spurn his servants in their chains.
Let the heavens and the earth give him praise,
the sea and all its living creatures.

For God will bring help to Zion
and rebuild the cities of Judah
and men shall dwell there in possession.
The sons of his servants shall inherit it;
those who love his name shall dwell there.  Glory...

Antiphon 3 Seek the Lord and you will live.


The Lord will teach us his ways
- and we will follow in his footsteps.


FIRST READING

From the book of the prophet Micah           6:1-15

The Lord accuses the people

Hear, then, what the Lord says:

Arise, present your plea before the mountains,
  and let the hills hear your voice!
Hear, O mountains, the plea of the Lord,
  pay attention, O foundations of the earth!
For the Lord has a plea against his people,
  and he enters into trial with Israel.

O my people, what have I done to you,
  or how have I wearied you? Answer me!
For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
  from the place of slavery I released you;
And I sent before you Moses,
  Aaron, and Miriam.
My people, remember what Moab's King Balak planned,
  and how Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him
  . . . from Shittim to Gilgal,
  that you may know the just deeds of the Lord.

With what shall I come before the Lord,
  and bow before God most high?
Shall I come before him with holocausts,
  with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
  with myriad streams of oil?
Shall I give my first-born for my crime,
  the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

You have been told, O man, what is good,
  and what the Lord requires of you:
Only to do the right and to love goodness,
  and to walk humbly with your God.

Hark! the Lord cries to the city.
  (It is wisdom to fear your name!)
  Hear, O tribe and city council,
You whose rich men are full of violence,
  whose inhabitants speak falsehood
  with deceitful tongues in their heads!
Am I to bear any longer criminal hoarding
  and the meager ephah that is accursed?
Shall I acquit criminal balances,
  bags of false weights?
Rather I will begin to strike you
  with devastation because of your sins.
You shall sow, yet not reap,
  tread out the olive, yet pour no oil,
  and the grapes, yet drink no wine.
You shall eat, without being satisfied,
  food that will leave you empty;
What you acquire, you cannot save;
  what you do save, I will deliver up to the sword.


RESPONSORY          See Micah 6:8; Psalm 37:3
The Lord has told you, O man, what is good,
- and this is what he expects of you:
to do what is right, to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with your God.

Trust in the Lord and do good
and you shall possess the land.
- And this is what he expects of you:
to do what is right, to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with your God.


SECOND READING

From a sermon on Baptism by by Saint Pacian, bishop
(Nn. 5-6: PL 13, 1092-1093)

We follow the new way through the Spirit of Christ

The sin of Adam had come into all men. Through one man, the Apostle says, sin entered and through sin, death. Thus it has come to all men. Therefore, the justice of Christ must enter into men; and as the old Adam ruined his descendants through sin, so Christ must bring new life to all men through justice. The Apostle stresses this theme when he says: As through the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners, so too, through the obedience of one man, many were made just. And, as sin brought death to the offender, so grace through justice brings birth to life eternal.

Someone may say to me: "But the sin of Adam is justifiably transmitted to his posterity. Since they were descended from him, and since we are not descended from Christ, how can we be saved because of him?" Do not think in physical terms about descent, then you will see how Christ is our father. In these times of salvation, Christ received body and soul from Mary. He came to save this soul, not to leave it in hell. He united it with his spirit and made it his own. And this is the marriage of the Lord, the union of two in one flesh, so that according to that great mystery, two become one flesh, Christ and his Church.

From this marriage the Christian people are born, by the descent of the spirit of the Lord. The essential nature of the soul, engendered by heavenly seed, grows in the womb of our mother, the Church, and at birth is given life by Christ. Therefore, the Apostle says: The first Adam was a living soul, the new Adam a life-giving spirit. Thus Christ continues in the Church through his priests, as the same Apostle says: In Christ, I have begotten you. And so, the seed of Christ, that is, the Spirit of God, brings forth the new man, nourished in the womb of his mother, welcomed at his birth at the font through the hands of the priests, while faith presides over the ceremony.

Christ must, therefore, be received in order to beget, for the apostle John says: To all who received him he gave the power to become sons of God. But these things cannot be accomplished except by the sacrament of the font, the chrism and the priest. For sin is washed away by the waters of the font; the Holy Spirit is poured forth in the chrism; and we obtain both of these gifts through the hands and the mouth of the priest. Thus the whole man is reborn and renewed in Christ. Just as Christ rose from the dead, so we shall walk in the newness of life, that is we put away the errors of our old lives and we follow the new way through the Spirit in Christ.


RESPONSORY          Romans 5:19, 21; 1 John 4:10
As by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners,
so by one man's obedience,
many will be made righteous.
- As sin reigned through death,
so grace will reign to bring us eternal life through Jesus Christ.

God sent his only Son as an offering for our sins.
- As sin reigned through death,
so grace will reign to bring us eternal life through Jesus Christ.


COLLECT
Almighty ever-living God,
whom, taught by the Holy Spirit,
we dare to call our Father,
bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts
the spirit of adoption as your sons and daughters,
that we may merit to enter into the inheritance
which you have promised.
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.