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 Lamentations           3:1-33

Hope in time of mourning

I am a man who knows affliction
  from the rod of his anger,
One whom he has led and forced to walk
  in darkness, not in the light;
Against me alone he brings back his hand
  again and again all the day.

He has worn away my flesh and my skin,
  he has broken my bones;
He has beset me round about
  with poverty and weariness;
He has left me to dwell in the dark
  like those long dead.

He has hemmed me in with no escape
  and weighed me down with chains;
Even when I cry out for help,
  he stops my prayer;
He has blocked my ways with fitted stones,
  and turned my paths aside.

A lurking bear he has been to me,
  a lion in ambush!
He deranged my ways, set me astray,
  left me desolate.
He bent his bow, and set me up
  as the target for his arrow.

He pierces my sides
  with shafts from his quiver.
I have become a laughingstock for all nations,
  their taunt all the day long;
He has sated me with bitter food,
  made me drink my fill of wormwood.

He has broken my teeth with gravel,
  pressed my face in the dust;
My soul is deprived of peace,
  I have forgotten what happiness is;
I tell myself my future is lost,
  all that I hoped for from the Lord.

The thought of my homeless poverty
  is wormwood and gall;
Remembering it over and over
  leaves my soul downcast within me.
But I will call this to mind,
  as my reason to have hope:

The favors of the Lord are not exhausted,
  his mercies are not spent;
They are renewed each morning,
  so great is his faithfulness.
My portion is the Lord, says my soul;
  therefore will I hope in him.

Good is the Lord to one who waits for him,
  to the soul that seeks him;
It is good to hope in silence
  for the saving help of the Lord.
It is good for a man to bear
  the yoke from his youth.

Let him sit alone and in silence,
  when it is laid upon him.
Let him put his mouth to the dust;
  there may yet be hope.
Let him offer his cheek to be struck,
  let him be filled with disgrace.

For the Lord's rejection
  does not last forever;
Though he punishes, he takes pity,
  in the abundance of his mercies;
He has no joy in afflicting
  or grieving the sons of men.


RESPONSORY          Lamentations 3:52,54,56,58; Acts 21:13
My enemies hated me for no reason;
I said: I am lost.
I called for help, O Lord, and you heard by prayer.
- You said: Do not be afraid;
you took up my cause and redeemed my life.

For the sake of the name of the Lord Jesus,
I am ready not only for imprisonment
but even death.
- You said: Do not be afraid;
you took up my cause and redeemed my life.


SECOND READING

From a sermon by Blessed Isaac of Stella, abbot
(Sermo 11: PL 194, 1728-1729)

Christ will forgive no sin without the Church

The prerogative of receiving the confession of sin and the power to forgive sin are two things that belong properly to God alone. We must confess our sins to him and look to him for forgiveness. Since only he has the power to forgive sins, it is to him that we must make our confession. But when the Almighty, the Most High, wedded a bride who was weak and of low estate, he made that maid-servant a queen. He took her from her place behind him, at his feet, and enthroned her at his side. She had been born from his side, and therefore he betrothed her to himself. And as all that belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son because by nature they are one, so also the bridegroom gave all he had to the bride and he shared in all that was hers. He made her one both with himself and with the Father. Praying for his bride, the Son said to the Father: I want them to be one with us, even as you and I are one.

And so the bridegroom is one with the Father and one with the bride. Whatever he found in his bride alien to her own nature he took from her and nailed to his cross when he bore her sins and destroyed them on the tree. He received from her and clothed himself in what was hers by nature and gave her what belonged to him as God. He destroyed what was diabolical, took to himself what was human, and conferred on her what was divine. So all that belonged to the bride was shared in by the bridegroom, and he who had done no wrong and on whose lips was found no deceit could say: Have pity on me, Lord, for I am weak. Thus, sharing as he did in the bride's weakness, the bridegroom made his own her cries of distress, and gave his bride all that was his. Therefore, she too has the prerogative of receiving the confession of sin and the power to forgive sin, which is the reason for the command: Go, show yourself to the priest.

The Church is incapable of forgiving any sin without Christ, and Christ is unwilling to forgive any sin without the Church. The Church cannot forgive the sin of one who has not repented, who has not been touched by Christ; Christ will not forgive the sin of one who despises the Church. What God has joined together, man must not separate. This is a great mystery, but I understand it as referring to Christ and the Church.

Do not destroy the whole Christ by separating head from body, for Christ is not complete without the Church, nor is the Church complete without Christ. The whole and complete Christ is head and body. This is why he said: No one has ever ascended into heaven except the Son of Man whose home is in heaven. He is the only man who can forgive sin.


RESPONSORY          John 17:20,21,22,18
I pray for them,
that they may all be one,
as you, Father, are in me and I in you.
I have given them the glory you gave to me,
- that they may be one as we are one.

As you have sent me into the world,
I have sent them into the world.
- That they may be one as we are one.


COLLECT
O God, by whom we are redeemed and receive adoption,
look graciously upon your beloved sons and daughters,
that those who believe in Christ
may receive true freedom
and an everlasting inheritance.
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.