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 approach the Lord with praise and thanksgiving.

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

O God of truth, prepare our minds
to hear and heed your holy word.
Fill every heart that longs for You
with your mysterious presence, Lord.

Almighty Father, with your Son
and blessed Spirit, hear our prayer.
Teach us to love eternal truth
and seek its freedom everywhere.
Melody: Warrington LM, R. Harrison, 1810; Text: Stanbrook Abbey; Midi:Cyberhymnal


PSALMODY

Antiphon 1: Show me your mercy, Lord, and keep me safe, alleluia.

Lord, do not reprove me in your anger;
punish me not in your rage.
Have mercy on me, Lord, I have no strength;
Lord, heal me, my body is racked;
my soul is racked with pain.

But you, O Lord...how long?
Return, Lord, rescue my soul.
Save me in your merciful love;
for in death no one remembers you;
from the grave, who can give you praise?

I am exhausted with my groaning;
every night I drench my pillow with tears;
I bedew my bed with weeping.
My eye wastes away with grief;
I have grown old surrounded by my foes.

Leave me, all you who do evil;
for the Lord has heard my weeping.
The Lord has heard my plea;
The Lord will accept my prayer.
All my foes will retire in confusion,
foiled and suddenly confounded. Glory...

Antiphon 1 Show me your mercy, Lord, and keep me safe, alleluia.


Antiphon 2 The poor are not alone in their distress. God is here to help them (alleluia).

                     I
I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart;
I will recount all your wonders.
I will rejoice in you and be glad,
and sing psalms to your name, O Most High.

See how my enemies turn back,
how they stumble and perish before you.
You upheld the justice of my cause;
you sat enthroned, judging with justice.

You have checked the nations, destroyed the wicked;
you have wiped out their name for ever and ever.
The foe is destroyed, eternally ruined.
You uprooted their cities; their memory has perished.

But the Lord sits enthroned for ever.
He has set up his throne for judgment;
he will judge the world with justice,
he will judge the peoples with his truth.

For the oppressed let the Lord be a stronghold,
a stronghold in times of distress.
Those who know your name will trust you;
you will never forsake those who seek you. Glory...

Antiphon 2 The poor are not alone in their distress. God is here to help them (alleluia).


Antiphon 3 I will be the herald of your praises, Lord, where the people of Zion gather (alleuia).

                   II
Sing psalms to the Lord who dwells in Zion.
Proclaim his mighty works among the peoples,
for the Avenger of blood has remembered them,
has not forgotten the cry of the poor.

Have pity on me, Lord, see my sufferings,
you who save me from the gates of death;
that I may recount all your praise
at the gates of the city of Zion
and rejoice in your saving help.

The nations have fallen in the pit which they made,
their feet caught in the snare they laid.
The Lord has revealed himself, and given judgment.
The wicked are snared in the work of their own hands.

Let the wicked go down among the dead,
all the nations forgetful of God;
for the needy shall not always be forgotten
nor the hopes of the poor be in vain.

Arise, Lord, let men not prevail!
Let the nations be judged before you.
Lord, strike them with terror,
let the nations know they are but men. Glory....

Declare this among the nations:
  proclaim a war,
  rouse the warriors to arms!
Let all the soldiers
  report and march!
Beat your plowshares into swords,
  and your pruning hooks into spears;
  let the weak man say, "I am a warrior!"
Hasten and come, all you neighboring peoples,
  assemble there!
  Bring down, O Lord, your warriors!

Let the nations bestir themselves and come up
  to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
For there I will sit in judgment
  upon all the neighboring nations.
Apply the sickle,
  for the harvest is ripe;
Come and tread,
  for the wine press is full;
The vats overflow,
  for great is their malice.
Crowd upon crowd
  in the valley of decision;
For near is the day of the Lord
  in the valley of decision.

Sun and moon are darkened,
  and the stars withhold their brightness.
The Lord roars from Zion,
  and from Jerusalem raises his voice;
The heavens and the earth quake,
  but the Lord is a refuge to his people,
  a stronghold to the men of Israel.
Then shall you know that I, the Lord, am your God,
  dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain;
Jerusalem shall be holy,
  and strangers shall pass through her no more.

And then, on that day,
  the mountains shall drip new wine,
  and the hills shall flow with milk;
And the channels of Judah
  shall flow with water:
A fountain shall issue from the house of the Lord,
  to water the Valley of Shittim.
Egypt shall be a waste,
  and Edom a desert waste,
Because of violence done to the people of Judah,
  because they shed innocent blood in their land.
But Judah shall abide forever,
  and Jerusalem for all generations.
I will avenge their blood,
  and not leave it unpunished.
The Lord dwells in Zion.


RESPONSORY          Joel 4:18; Revelation 22:17,1
The mountains shall run with sweet wine,
and all the riverbeds of Judah shall flow with water.
A fountain shall spring from the house of the Lord.
- If anyone is thirsty, come forward
and receive the water of life,
freely given to all who desire it.

The angel showed me the river and water of life,
bright as crystal,
which flowed from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
- If anyone is thirsty, come forward
and receive the water of life,
freely given to all who desire it.


SECOND READING

From a treatise on Forgiveness by Fulgentius of Ruspe, bishop
(Liber 2,11,2-12,1.3-4:CCL 91 A, 693-695)

He who overcomes shall not be harmed by the second death

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye as the final trumpet sounds, for the trumpet shall indeed sound, the dead shall rise incorruptible and we shall be changed. In saying “we” Paul is indicating that the gift of that future change will also be given to those who during their time on earth are united to him and his companions by upright lives within the communion of the Church. He hints at the nature of the change when he says: This corruptible body must put on incorruptibility, this mortal body immortality. In order, then, that men may obtain the transformation which is the reward of the just, they must first undergo here on earth a change which is God’s free gift. Those who in this life have been changed from evil to good are promised that future change as a reward.

Through justification and the spiritual resurrection, grace now effects in them an initial change that is God’s gift. Later on, through the bodily resurrection, the transformation of the just will be brought to completion, and they will experience a perfect, abiding, unchangeable glorification. The purpose of this change wrought in them by the gifts of both justification and glorification is that they may abide in an eternal, changeless state of joy.

Here on earth they are changed by the first resurrection, in which they are enlightened and converted, thus passing from death to life, sinfulness to holiness, unbelief to faith, and evil actions to holy life. For this reason the second death has no power over them. It is of such men that the Book of Revelation says: Happy the man who shares in the first resurrection; over such as he the second death has no power. Elsewhere the same book says: He who overcomes shall not be harmed by the second death. As the first resurrection consists of the conversion of the heart, the second death consists of unending torment.

Let everyone, therefore, who does not wish to be condemned to the endless punishment of the second death now hasten to share in the first resurrection. For if any during this life are changed out of fear of God and pass from an evil life to a good one, they pass from death to life and later they shall be transformed from a shameful state to a glorious one.


RESPONSORY          Colossians 3:3-4; Romans 6:11
You have died,
and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
- When Christ who is your life appears,
you will appear with him in glory.

You must consider yourselves dead to sin,
but alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
- When Christ who is your life appears,
you will appear with him in glory.


COLLECT
Grant us, we pray, O Lord our God,
the constant gladness of being devoted to you,
for it is full and lasting happiness
to serve with constancy
the author of all that is good.
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.