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.

Antiphon: Do the things you have learned, and you will be blessed.


Antiphon 2: Let the prayer rise up before you, O Lord.

                         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...

Antiphon 2:  Let the prayer rise up before you, O Lord.


Antiphon 3: I cry to you, O Lord; do not hide your face from me.

                      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.

Antiphon: I cry to you, O Lord; do not hide your face from me.

READING
1 John 3:17-18

I ask you, how can God’s love survive in a man who has enough of this world’s goods yet closes his heart to his brother when he sees him in need? Little children, let us love in deed and in truth and not merely talk about it.


Happy the man who is compassionate and thoughtful
- His memory will be cherished for ever.


PRAYER
All-powerful and ever-living God,
in midmorning you poured out the Holy Spirit
as a constant Friend and Guide for your apostles.
Send that same Spirit of love to us
to make us faithful witnesses to you
in the sight of all mankind.
Grant this through Christ our Lord.