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: Let us listen to the voice of God; let us enter into his rest.

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

Praise the Lord: ye heavens, adore Him;
Praise Him, angels in the height.
Sun and moon, rejoice before Him;
Praise Him, all ye stars of light.
Praise the Lord, for He hath spoken;
Worlds His mighty voice obeyed.
Laws which never shall be broken
For their guidance He hath made.

Praise the Lord, for He is glorious;
Never shall His promise fail.
God hath made His saints victorious;
Sin and death shall not prevail.
Praise the God of our salvation;
Hosts on high, His power proclaim.
Heaven and earth and all creation,
Laud and magnify His Name.

Worship, honor, glory, blessing,
Lord, we offer unto Thee.
Young and old, Thy praise expressing,
In glad homage bend the knee.
All the saints in heaven adore Thee;
We would bow before Thy throne.
As Thine angels serve before Thee,
So on earth Thy will be done.
Text: Foundling Hospital Collection, Stanza 3, Edward Ostler; Melody: Austria 87.87. D Franz Joseph Haydn


PSALMODY

Antiphon 1: The Lord summons heaven and earth to witness his judgment upon his people.

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 God himself is the judge. Glory...

Antiphon 1 The Lord summons heaven and earth to witness his judgment upon his people.


Antiphon 2 Come to me in your distress and I will save 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 Come to me in your distress and I will save you.


Antiphon 3 A sacrifice of praise will give me glory.

                     III
But God says to the wicked:

"But how can you recite my commandments
and take my covenant on my 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 honours me
and I will show God’s salvation to the upright."  Glory...

Antiphon 3 A sacrifice of praise will give me glory.


We are always praying earnestly for you.
- That you may have a deep knowledge of God's will.


FIRST READING

From the book of the prophet Isaiah       37:21-35

Isaiah prophesies about the Assyrian king

Then Isaiah, son of Amoz, sent this message to Hezekiah: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: In answer to your prayer for help against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, this is the word the Lord has spoken concerning him:

She despises you, laughs you to scorn,
  the virgin daughter Zion;
Behind you she wags her head,
  daughter Jerusalem.
Whom have you insulted and blasphemed,
  against whom have you raised your voice
And lifted up your eyes on high?
  Against the Holy One of Israel!
Through your servants you have insulted the Lord:
  You said, "With my many chariots
I climbed the mountain heights,
  the recesses of Lebanon;
I cut down its lofty cedars,
  its choice cypresses;
I reached the remotest heights,
  its forest park.
I dug wells and drank water in foreign lands;
  I dried up with the soles of my feet all the rivers of Egypt."

Have you not heard?
  Long ago I prepared it,
From days of old I planned it,
  now I have brought it to pass:
That you should reduce fortified cities
  into heaps of ruins,
While their inhabitants, shorn of power,
  are dismayed and ashamed,
Becoming like the plants of the field,
  like the green growth,
  like the scorched grass on the housetops.
I am aware whether you stand or sit;
  I know whether you come or go,
  and also your rage against me.
Because of your rage against me
  and your fury which has reached my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
  and my bit in your mouth,
  and make you return the way you came.
 
This shall be a sign for you:
  this year you shall eat the aftergrowth,
  next year, what grows of itself;
But in the third year, sow and reap,
  plant vineyards and eat their fruit!
The remaining survivors of the house of Judah
  shall again strike root below
  and bear fruit above.
For out of Jerusalem shall come a remnant,
  and from Mount Zion, survivors.
  The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.

Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not reach this city, nor shoot an arrow at it, nor come before it with a shield, nor cast up siegeworks against it. He shall return by the same way he came, without entering the city, says the Lord. I will shield and save this city for my own sake, and for the sake of my servant David.


RESPONSORY          Isaiah 52:9-10
The Lord has comforted his people;
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
- and all the ends of the earth shall see the saving power of God.

The Lord has bared his holy arm
in the sight of all the nations.
- And all the ends of the earth shall see the saving power of God.


SECOND READING

From The Explanation of the Psalms by Saint Ambrose, bishop (Ps. 48, 14-15: CSEL 64, 368-370)

Christ has reconciled the world to God by his own blood

In reconciling the world to God, Christ stood in no need of reconciliation for himself. What sin of his was there to atone for, sinless as he was? When he was asked for the temple-tax, a sin-offering imposed by the law, he said to Peter: Simon, from whom do the kings of the earth receive tribute or tax? From their own sons or from strangers? Peter replied: From strangers. The Lord said to him: Then the sons are free. But so as not to give scandal to them, cast a hood and take the first fish that comes; open its mouth, and you will find a shekel. Take it and give it to them for me and for you.

Christ shows that he does not need to atone for sin on his own behalf: he is no slave of sin but, as Son of God, is free from all sin. The Son sets free, a slave remains in his sin. Christ is therefore free of all sin, and does not pay the price of his own redemption. His blood could pay the ransom for all the sins of the whole world. The one who has no debt to pay for himself is the right person to set others free.

It is not only that Christ has no ransom to pay or atonement to make for his own sins; if we apply his words to every individual man they can be taken to mean that individuals do not need to make atonement for themselves, for Christ is the atonement for all, the redemption for all.

Is any man's blood fit to redeem him, seeing that it was Christ who shed his blood for the redemption of all? Is anyone's blood comparable to Christ's? Is anyone great enough to make atonement for himself over and above the atonement which "Christ has offered in himself, Christ who alone has reconciled the world to God by his blood? What greater victim, what more excellent sacrifice, what better advocate can there be than he who because the propitiation for the sins of all, and gave his life for us as our redemption?

We do not need, then, to look for an atonement or redemption made by each individual, because the price paid for all is the blood of Christ, that blood by which the Lord Jesus has redeemed us, he who alone has reconciled us to the Father. He has labored even to the end, shouldering our burdens himself. Come to me, he says, all you that labor, and I will refresh you. 


RESPONSORY          See Colossians 1:21-22; Romans 3:25
Once you were estranged from God,
at enmity with him in heart and mind,
and your deeds were evil.
But now, by Christ's death in his mortal body,
- God has reconciled you to himself,
in order to welcome you into his presence as saints,
without the slightest impurity or imperfection.

God made Christ's sacrificial death
the means of expiating the sins of all believers.
- God has reconciled you to himself,
in order to welcome you into his presence as saints,
without the slightest impurity or imperfection.


COLLECT
O God, who have prepared for those who love you
good things which no eye can see,
fill our hearts, we pray, with the warmth of your love,
so that, loving you in all things and above all things,
we may attain your promises,
which surpass every human desire.
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.