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 Malachi       3:1-24

The day of the Lord

    Thus says the Lord God:
Lo, I am sending my messenger
  to prepare the way before me;
And suddenly there will come to the temple
  the Lord whom you seek,
And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.
  Yes, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
But who will endure the day of his coming?
  And who can stand when he appears?
For he is like the refiner's fire,
  or like the fuller's lye.
He will sit refining and purifying (silver),
  and he will purify the sons of Levi,
Refining them like gold or like silver
  that they may offer due sacrifice to the Lord.
Then the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem
  will please the Lord,
  as in days of old, as in years gone by.

I will draw near to you for judgment,
  and I will be swift to bear witness
Against the sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers,
  those who defraud the hired man of his wages,
Against those who defraud widows and orphans;
  those who turn aside the stranger,
  and those who do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
 
Surely I, the Lord, do not change,
  nor do you cease to be sons of Jacob.
Since the days of your fathers you have turned aside
  from my statutes, and have not kept them.
Return to me, and I will return to you,
  says the Lord of hosts.
Yet you say, "How must we return?"
  Dare a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me!
And you say, "How do we rob you?"
  In tithes and in offerings!
You are indeed accursed,
  for you, the whole nation, rob me.

Bring the whole tithe
  into the storehouse,
That there may be food in my house,
  and try me in this, says the Lord of hosts:
Shall I not open for you the floodgates of heaven,
  to pour down blessing upon you without measure?
For your sake I will forbid the locust
  to destroy your crops;
And the vine in the field will not be barren,
  says the Lord of hosts.
Then all nations will call you blessed,
  for you will be a delightful land,
  says the Lord of hosts.

You have defied me in word, says the Lord,
  yet you ask, "What have we spoken against you?"
You have said, "It is vain to serve God,
  and what do we profit by keeping his command,
And going about in penitential dress
  in awe of the Lord of hosts?
Rather must we call the proud blessed;
  for indeed evildoers prosper,
  and even tempt God with impunity."

Then they who fear the Lord spoke with one another,
  and the Lord listened attentively;
And a record book was written before him
  of those who fear the Lord and trust in his name.
And they shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts,
  my own special possession, on the day I take action.
And I will have compassion on them,
  as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.
Then you will again see the distinction
  between the just and the wicked;
Between him who serves God,
  and him who does not serve him.

For lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven,
  when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble,
And the day that is coming will set them on fire,
  leaving them neither root nor branch,
  says the Lord of hosts.

But for you who fear my name, there will arise
  the sun of justice with its healing rays;
And you will gambol like calves out of the stall
  and tread down the wicked;
They will become ashes under the soles of your feet,
  on the day I take action, says the Lord of hosts.

Remember the law of Moses my servant,
  which I enjoined him on Horeb,
The statutes and ordinances
  for all Israel.
 
Lo, I will send you
  Elijah, the prophet,
Before the day of the Lord comes,
  the great and terrible day,
To turn the hearts of the fathers to their children,
  and the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike
  the land with doom.


RESPONSORY          Malachi 3:1; Luke 1:76
See, I am sending my messenger
to prepare the way before me.
- The Lord whom you seek shall enter his temple;
the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, shall come.

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.
- - The Lord whom you seek shall enter his temple;
the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, shall come.


SECOND READING

From the Pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world of the Second Vatican Council
(Gaudium et spes, nn. 40,45)

I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last

The way in which the earthly and the heavenly city interpenetrate each other can be recognized only by faith; of a history always troubled by sin until the glory of the sons of God is fully revealed.

As she pursues her appointed goal of bringing salvation to men, the Church not only communicates the divine life to mankind but also in some measure reflects the light of that life over the whole world. She does this especially through her work of restoring and enhancing the dignity of the human person, of strengthening the fabric of human society, and of enriching the daily activity of men with a deeper meaning and importance. The Church believes that in this way she can make a great contribution, through individual members and the community as a whole, toward bringing a greater humanity to the family of man and to its history.

While the Church helps the world and herself receives much from the world, she has one object in view: the coming of God's kingdom and the salvation of the whole human race. Every good that the people of God in the course of its earthly pilgrimage can confer on the family of men derives from the fact that the Church is the universal sacrament of salvation, revealing, and at the same time bringing into operation, the mystery of God's love for man.

The Word of God, through whom all things were made, was himself made flesh so that as perfect man he might save all men and bring all things into unity. The Lord is the final end of human history, the point toward which the aspirations of history and civilization are moving, the focus of the human race, the joy of all hearts and the fulfillment of their desires. He it is whom the Father raised from the dead, lifted up on high and set at his right hand, appointing him judge of the living and the dead. In his Spirit we have been brought to life and gathered into unity, and so make our pilgrim way toward the goal of human history, a goal in complete harmony with the loving plan of God to make all things one in Christ, the things in heaven and the things on earth.

The Lord himself says: See, I am coming soon; I bring my recompense with me, to give to everyone what his deeds deserve. I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.


RESPONSORY          Acts 10:36; 4:12; 10:42
God sent his word
and proclaimed the good news of his peace
through Jesus Christ.
- He is Lord of all,
and there is no salvation in anyone else.

God appointed him to judge the living and the dead.
- He is Lord of all,
and there is no salvation in anyone else.


COLLECT
May your grace, O Lord, we pray,
at all times go before us and follow after
and make us always determined
to carry out good works.
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.