Divine Office Office of Readings

Jan 21, Invitatory for Wednesday of the 2nd week of Ordinary Time

Lord, open my lips. — And my mouth will proclaim your praise. Ant. Cry out with joy to the Lord all the Earth, serve the Lord with gladness. Psalm 95 Come, let us sing to the Lord and shout with joy to the Rock who saves us. Let us approach him with praise and thanksgiving and sing joyful songs to the Lord. Ant. Cry out with joy to the Lord all the Earth, serve the Lord with gladness. The Lord is God, the mighty God, the great king over all the gods. He holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the highest mountains as well He made the sea; it belongs to him, the dry land, too, for it was formed by his hands. Ant. Cry out with joy to the Lord all the Earth, serve the Lord with gladness. Come, then, let us bow down and worship, bending the knee before the Lord, our maker, For he is our God and we are his people, the flock he shepherds. Ant. Cry out with joy to the Lord all the Earth, serve the Lord with gladness. Today, listen to the voice of the Lord: Do not grow stubborn, as your fathers did in the wilderness, when at Meriba and Massah they challenged me and provoked me, Although they had seen all of my works. Ant. Cry out with joy to the Lord all the Earth, serve the Lord with gladness. Forty years I endured that generation. I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray and they do not know my ways.” So I swore in my anger, “They shall not enter into my rest.” Ant. Cry out with joy to the Lord all the Earth, serve the Lord with gladness. 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. Ant. Cry out with joy to the Lord all the Earth, serve the Lord with gladness.

Jan 21, Office of Readings for Wednesday of the 2nd week of Ordinary Time

Ribbon Placement: Liturgy of the Hours Vol. III: Ordinary: 651 Proper of Seasons: 90 Psalter: Wednesday, Week II, 891 Office of Readings for Wednesday in Ordinary Time 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 For the beauty of the earth, For the beauty of the skies, For the love which from our birth Over and around us lies, Lord of all, to thee we raise This our hymn of grateful praise. For the beauty of each hour Of the day and of the night, Hill and vale, and tree and flow’r, Sun and moon, and stars of light, Lord of all, to thee we raise This our hymn of grateful praise. For the joy of ear and eye, for the heart and mind's delight, for the mystic harmony, linking sense to sound and sight; Lord of all, to thee we raise This our hymn of grateful praise. For the joy of human love, brother, sister, parent, child, friends on earth and friends above, for all gentle thoughts and mild; Lord of all, to thee we raise This our hymn of grateful praise. For each perfect gift of Thine, to our race so freely given, graces human and divine, flowers of earth and buds of heaven. Lord of all, to thee we raise This our hymn of grateful praise. 𝄞"For The Beauty Of The Earth" by Rebecca Hincke • Available for Purchase [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NTPV36S/ref=dm_ws_tlw_trk12] • Musical Score [https://divineoffice.org/wp-content/uploads/For-the-Beauty-of-the-Earth.pdf] • Title: For the Beauty of the Earth; Text: Folliott S. Pierpoint, 1835–1917; Music: Conrad Kocher, 1786–1872; Tune: DIX; Artist: Rebecca Hincke; (c) 2017 Surgeworks, Inc. • Albums that contain this Hymn: Hymns and Chants of Divine Office, Vol. 3 PSALMODY Ant. 1 We groan in pain as we await the redemption of our bodies. Psalm 39 Urgent prayer of a sick person Creation is made subject to futility… by him who subjected it, but it is not without hope (Romans 8:20). I I said: “I will be watchful of my ways for fear I should sin with my tongue. I will put a curb on my lips when the wicked man stands before me.” I was dumb, silent and still. His prosperity stirred my grief. My heart was burning within me. At the thought of it, the fire blazed up and my tongue burst into speech: “O Lord, you have shown me my end, how short is the length of my days. Now I know how fleeting is my life. You have given me a short span of days; my life is as nothing in your sight. A mere breath, the man who stood so firm, a mere shadow, the man passing by, a mere breath, the riches he hoards, not knowing who will have them.” 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. Ant. We groan in pain as we await the redemption of our bodies. Ant. 2 Hear and answer my prayer, O Lord; let me not weep in vain. II And now, Lord, what is there to wait for? In you rests all my hope. Set me free from all my sins, do not make me the taunt of the fool. I was silent, not opening my lips, because this was all your doing. Take away your scourge from me. I am crushed by the blows of your hand. You punish man’s sins and correct him; like the moth you devour all he treasures. Mortal man is no more than a breath; O Lord, hear my prayer. O Lord, turn your ear to my cry. Do not be deaf to my tears. In your house I am a passing guest, a pilgrim, like all my fathers. Look away that I may breathe again, before I depart to be no more. 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. Psalm-prayer Through your Son you taught us, Father, not to be fearful of tomorrow but to commit our lives to your care. Do not withhold your Spirit from us but help us find a life of peace after these days of trouble. Ant. Hear and answer my prayer, O Lord; let me not weep in vain. Ant. 3 I have put all my trust in God’s never-failing mercy. Psalm 52 Against a calumniator If anyone would boast, let him boast in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:31). Why do you boast of your wickedness, you champion of evil, planning ruin all day long, your tongue like a sharpened razor, you master of deceit? You love evil more than good; lies more than truth. You love the destructive word, you tongue of deceit. For this God will destroy you and remove you for ever. He will snatch you from your tent and uproot you from the land of the living. The just shall see and fear. They shall laugh and say: “So this is the man who refused to take God as his stronghold, but trusted in the greatness of his wealth and grew powerful by his crimes.” But I am like a growing olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever. I will thank you for evermore; for this is your doing. I will proclaim that your name is good, in the presence of your friends. 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. Psalm-prayer Father, you cut down the unfruitful branch for burning and prune the fertile to make it bear more fruit. Make us grow like laden olive trees in your domain, firmly rooted in the power and mercy of your Son, so that you may gather from us fruit worthy of eternal life. Ant. I have put all my trust in God’s never-failing mercy. Sacred Silence (indicated by a bell) A moment to reflect and receive in our hearts the full resonance of the voice of the Holy Spirit and to unite our personal prayer more closely with the word of God and public voice of the Church. I put my trust in the word of the Lord. — All my hope is in him. READINGS First reading From the book of Deuteronomy 7:6-14; 8:1-6 Israel, the chosen people Moses spoke to the people, saying: “You are a people sacred to the Lord, your God; he has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be a people peculiarly his own. It was not because you are the largest of all nations that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you are really the smallest of all nations. It was because the Lord loved you and because of his fidelity to the oath he had sworn to your fathers, that he brought you out with his strong hand from the place of slavery, and ransomed you from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Understand, then, that the Lord, your God, is God indeed, the faithful God who keeps his merciful covenant down to the thousandth generation toward those who love him and keep his commandments, but who repays with destruction the person who hates him; he does not dally with such a one, but makes him personally pay for it. You shall therefore carefully observe the commandments, the statutes and the decrees which I enjoin on you today. “As your reward for heeding these decrees and observing them carefully, the Lord, your God, will keep with you the merciful covenant which he promised on oath to your fathers. He will love and bless and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your soil, your grain and wine and oil, the issue of your herds and the young of your flocks, in the land which he swore to your fathers he would give you. You will be blessed above all peoples; no man or woman among you shall be childless nor shall your livestock be barren. “Be careful to observe all the commandments I enjoin on you today, that you may live and increase, and may enter in and possess the land which the Lord promised on oath to your fathers. Remember how for forty years now the Lord, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments. “He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord. The clothing did not fall from you in tatters, nor did your feet swell these forty years. So you must realize that the Lord, your God, disciplines you even as a man disciplines his son. “Therefore, keep the commandments of the Lord, your God, by walking in his ways and fearing him.” RESPONSORY 1 John 4:10, 16; Isaiah 63:8, 9 God first loved us, and sent his own Son to be the sacrifice that frees us from our sins. —We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. The Lord himself has become our savior; he has redeemed us in his love. —We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. Second reading From the dogmatic constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council See, I will save my people In his wisdom and goodness the eternal Father created the whole world according to his supremely free and mysterious purpose and decreed that men should be raised up to share in the divine life. When they fell in Adam, he did not abandon them but always kept providing them with aids to salvation, in consideration of Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Before the ages the Father already knew all the elect and predestined them to be made into the likeness of his Son, so that he should be the firstborn among many brothers. God resolved to gather into holy Church all who believe in Christ. The Church, foreshadowed even from the beginning of the world, so marvelously prepared in the history of the people of Israel, established in these last times and revealed by the outpouring of the Holy spirit, will be made perfect in glory at the end of time. Then, as we read in the Fathers of the Church, all the righteous from Adam onward – from Abel, the righteous, to the last of the elect – will be gathered in the universal Church in the presence of the Father. Finally, those who have not yet received the Gospel are in their different ways related to God’s people. In the first place, there is that people which was given the covenants and the promises and from which Christ was born by human descent: the people which is by God’s choice most dear on account of the patriarchs. God never repents of his gifts or his call. God’s plan of salvation embraces those also who acknowledge the Creator. Among these are especially the Mohammedans; they profess their faith as the faith of Abraham, and with us they worship the one, merciful God who will judge men on the last day. God himself is not far from those others who seek the unknown God in darkness and shadows, for it is he who gives to all men life and inspiration and all things, and who as Savior desires all men to be saved. Eternal salvation is open to those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church but seek God with a sincere heart, and under the inspiration of grace try in their lives to do his will, made known to them by the dictates of their conscience. Nor does Divine Providence deny the aids necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet reached an explicit belief in God, but strive to lead a good life, under the influence of God’s grace. Whatever goodness and truth is found among them is seen by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel, and as given by him who shines on all men, so that they may at last have life. RESPONSORY Ephesians 1:9-10; Colossians 1:19-20 It was God’s plan that in the fullness of time — all creation should be brought together in unity under Christ. It pleased God that all perfection should dwell in Christ, and through him God chose to reconcile all things to himself. — All creation should be brought together in unity under Christ. CONCLUDING PRAYER Almighty ever-living God, who govern all things, both in heaven and on earth, mercifully hear the pleading of your people and bestow your peace on our times. 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. — Amen. Acclamation (at least in the communal celebration) Let us praise the Lord. — And give him thanks.

Jan 22, Invitatory for Thursday of the 2nd week of Ordinary Time

Lord, open my lips. — And my mouth will proclaim your praise. Ant. Come into the Lord’s presence singing for joy. Psalm 67 O God, be gracious and bless us and let your face shed its light upon us. So will your ways be known upon earth and all nations learn your saving help. Ant. Come into the Lord’s presence singing for joy. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. Ant. Come into the Lord’s presence singing for joy. Let the nations be glad and exult for you rule the world with justice. With fairness you rule the peoples, you guide the nations on earth. Ant. Come into the Lord’s presence singing for joy. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. Ant. Come into the Lord’s presence singing for joy. The earth has yielded its fruit for God, our God, has blessed us. May God still give us his blessing till the ends of the earth revere him. Ant. Come into the Lord’s presence singing for joy. 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. Ant. Come into the Lord’s presence singing for joy.

Jan 22, Office of Readings for Thursday of the 2nd week of Ordinary Time

Ribbon Placement: Liturgy of the Hours Vol. III: Ordinary: 651 Proper of Seasons: 94 Psalter: Thursday, Week II, 916 Office of Readings for Thursday in Ordinary Time 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 I am the Lord bringing light through the cloud Let the Heavens rain down righteousness Let earth open up, and salvation bear fruit; Let the Heavens rain down righteousness I am the Lord your God, beside me there is no other god I call you by your name let the Heavens rain down righteousness I the Lord have created it. I am the Lord bringing light through the cloud Let the Heavens rain down righteousness Let earth open up, and salvation bear fruit; Let the Heavens rain down righteousness I am the Lord your God, beside me there is no other god I call you by your name let the Heavens rain down righteousness I the Lord have created it. 𝄞"Isaiah 45" by Kathleen Lundquist [http://www.mystagogia.net] • Available for Purchase [https://music.apple.com/gh/artist/kathleen-lundquist/99063754] • Title: Isaiah 45; Lyrics adapted from Revised Standard Version of the Bible; Composer: Kathleen Lundquist; Artist: Kathleen Lundquist; Used with permission. • Albums that contain this Hymn: Sing of Mary PSALMODY Ant. 1 Lord, you are our Savior; we will praise you for ever. Psalm 44 The misfortunes of God’s people We triumph over all these things through him who loved us (Romans 8:37). I We heard with our own ears, O God, our fathers have told us the story of the things you did in their days, you yourself, in days long ago. To plant them you uprooted the nations: to let them spread you laid peoples low. No sword of their own won the land; no arm of their own brought them victory. It was your right hand, your arm and the light of your face: for you loved them. It is you, my king, my God, who granted victories to Jacob. Through you we beat down our foes; in your name we trampled our aggressors. For it was not in my bow that I trusted nor yet was I saved by my sword: it was you who saved us from our foes, it was you who put our foes to shame. All day long our boast was in God, and we praised your name without ceasing. 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. Ant. Lord, you are our Savior; we will praise you for ever. Ant. 2 Spare us, O Lord; do not bring your own people into contempt. II Yet now you have rejected us, disgraced us: you no longer go forth with our armies. You make us retreat from the foe and our enemies plunder us at will. You make us like sheep for the slaughter and scatter us among the nations. You sell your own people for nothing and make no profit by the sale. You make us the taunt of our neighbors, the laughing stock of all who are near. Among the nations, you make us a byword, among the peoples a thing of derision. All day long my disgrace is before me: my face is covered with shame at the voice of the taunter, the scoffer, at the sight of the foe and the avenger. 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. Ant. Spare us, O Lord; do not bring your own people into contempt. Ant. 3 Rise up, O Lord, and save us, for you are merciful. III This befell us though we had not forgotten you; though we had not been false to your covenant, though we had not withdrawn our hearts; though our feet had not strayed from your path. Yet you have crushed us in a place of sorrows and covered us with the shadow of death. Had we forgotten the name of our God or stretched our hands to another god would not God have found this out, he who knows the secrets of the heart? It is for you that we face death all day long and are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Awake, O Lord, why do you sleep? Arise, do not reject us for ever! Why do you hide your face from us and forget our oppression and misery? For we are brought down low to the dust; our body lies prostrate on the earth. Stand up and come to our help! Redeem us because of your love! 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. Psalm-prayer Lord, rise up and come to our aid; with your strong arm lead us to freedom, as you mightily delivered our forefathers. Since you are the king who knows the secrets of our hearts, fill them with the light of truth. Ant. Rise up, O Lord, and save us, for you are merciful. Sacred Silence (indicated by a bell) A moment to reflect and receive in our hearts the full resonance of the voice of the Holy Spirit and to unite our personal prayer more closely with the word of God and public voice of the Church. Lord, to whom shall we go? —You have the words of eternal life. READINGS First reading From the book of Deuteronomy 9:7-21, 25-29 The sins of the people and the mediation of Moses Moses spoke to the people, saying: “Bear in mind and do not forget how you angered the Lord, your God, in the desert. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you arrived in this place, you have been rebellious toward the Lord. At Horeb you so provoked the Lord that he was angry enough to destroy you, when I had gone up the mountain to receive the stone tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you. Meanwhile I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights without eating or drinking, till the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone inscribed, by God’s own finger, with a copy of all the words that the Lord spoke to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. “Then, at the end of the forty days and forty nights, when the Lord had given me the two stone tablets of the covenant, he said to me, ‘Go down from here now, quickly, for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have become depraved; they have already turned aside from the way I pointed out to them and have made for themselves a molten idol. I have seen now how stiff-necked this people is,’ the Lord said to me. ‘Let me be, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens. I will then make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ “When I had come down again from the blazing, fiery mountain, with the two tablets of the covenant in both my hands, I saw how you had sinned against the Lord, your God: you had already turned aside from the way which the Lord had pointed out to you by making for yourselves a molten calf! Raising the two tablets with both hands I threw them from me and broke them before your eyes. Then, as before, I lay prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights without eating or drinking, because of all the sin you had committed in the sight of the Lord and the evil you had done to provoke him. For I dreaded the fierce anger of the Lord against you: his wrath would destroy you. Yet once again the Lord listened to me. “With Aaron, too, the Lord was deeply angry, and would have killed him had I not prayed for him also at that time. Then, taking the calf, the sinful object you had made, and fusing it with fire, I ground it down to powder as fine as dust, which I threw into the wadi that went down the mountainside. “Those forty days, then, and forty nights, I lay prostrate before the Lord, because he had threatened to destroy you. “This was my prayer to him: O Lord God, destroy not your people, the heritage which your majesty has ransomed and brought out of Egypt with your strong hand. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Look not upon the stubbornness of this people nor upon their wickedness and sin, lest the people from whose land you have brought us say, ‘The Lord was not able to bring them into the land he promised them’; or ‘Out of hatred for them, he brought them out to slay them in the desert.’ They are, after all, your people and your heritage, whom you have brought out by your great power and with your outstretched arm.” RESPONSORY Exodus 32:11, 13, 14; 33:17 Moses pleaded with the Lord God, and said: Why, O Lord, should your anger blaze against your people? Turn from your burning wrath; remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom you promised a land where milk and honey flow. — So the Lord relented and held back the punishment with which he had threatened his people. God said to Moses: You have found favor with me; you are my intimate friend. — So the Lord relented and held back the punishment with which he had threatened his people. Second reading From a letter by Fulgentius of Ruspe, bishop Christ lives for ever to make intercession for us Notice at the conclusion of our prayer we never say, “through the Holy Spirit” but rather “through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord.” Through the mystery of the Incarnation, Jesus Christ became man, the mediator of God and man. He is a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek. By shedding his own blood he entered once and for all into the Holy Places. He did not enter a place made by human hands, a mere type of the true one; but, he entered heaven itself, where he is at God’s right hand interceding for us. Quite correctly, the Church continues to reflect this mystery in her prayer. This mystery of Jesus Christ the high priest is reflected in the apostle Paul’s statement: Through him, then, let us always offer the sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of lips that profess belief in his name. We were once enemies of the Father, but have been reconciled through the death of Christ. Through him then we offer our sacrifice of praise, our prayer to God. He became our offering to the Father, and through him our offering is now acceptable. It is for this reason that Peter the apostle urges us to be built up as living stones into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God through Jesus Christ. This then is the reason why we offer prayer to God our Father, but through Jesus Christ our Lord. When we speak of Christ’s priesthood, what else do we mean than the incarnation? Through this mystery, the Son of God, though his state was divine… emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave. As a slave, he humbled himself and in obedience he even accepted death. Even though he possessed equality with the Father, he became a little less than the angels. Always equal to the Father, the Son became a little less because he became a man. Christ lowered himself when he emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave. By this condition, Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, though himself ever remaining God, became a priest. To him along with the Father, we offer our sacrifice. Yet, through him the sacrifice we now offer is holy, living and pleasing to God. Indeed, if Christ had not sacrificed himself for us, we could not offer any sacrifice. For it is in him that our human nature becomes a redemptive offering. When we offer our prayers through him, our priest, we confess that Christ truly possesses the flesh of our race. Clearly the Apostle refers to this when he says: Every high priest is taken from among men. He is appointed to act on behalf of these same men in their relationship to God; he is to offer gifts and sacrifices to God. We do not, however, only say “your Son” when we conclude our prayer. We also say, “who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit. In this way we commemorate the natural unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is clear, then, that the Christ who exercises a priestly role on our behalf is the same Christ who enjoys a natural unity and equality with the Father and the Holy Spirit. RESPONSORY Hebrews 4:15, 14 Let us approach the throne of grace with perfect confidence; — we shall find compassion and grace to help us in time of need. We do not have a high priest who is incapable of understanding our weaknesses. — We shall find compassion and grace to help us in time of need. CONCLUDING PRAYER Almighty ever-living God, who govern all things, both in heaven and on earth, mercifully hear the pleading of your people and bestow your peace on our times. 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. — Amen. Acclamation (at least in the communal celebration) Let us praise the Lord. — And give him thanks.

Jan 24, Invitatory for Saturday of the 2nd week of Ordinary Time

Lord, open my lips. — And my mouth will proclaim your praise. Ant. Let us listen to the voice of God, let us enter into his rest.[1] Psalm 100 Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing for joy. Ant. Let us listen to the voice of God, let us enter into his rest. Know that he, the Lord, is God. He made us, we belong to him, we are his people, the sheep of his flock. Ant. Let us listen to the voice of God, let us enter into his rest. Go within his gates, giving thanks. Enter his courts with songs of praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. Ant. Let us listen to the voice of God, let us enter into his rest. Indeed, how good is the Lord, eternal his merciful love. He is faithful from age to age. Ant. Let us listen to the voice of God, let us enter into his rest. 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. Ant. Let us listen to the voice of God, let us enter into his rest. [1]Note: When we made the sung recordings (for the Invitatory and the psalmody for high rank celebrations) we used the Mundelein Psalter. The text is meant to facilitate singing so that’s the reason you may notice differences.