Divine Office Office of Readings

Dec 10, Invitatory for Wednesday of the 2nd week of Advent

Lord, open my lips. — And my mouth will proclaim your praise. Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come.

Dec 11, Invitatory for Thursday of the 2nd week of Advent

Lord, open my lips. — And my mouth will proclaim your praise. Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come.

Dec 11, Office of Readings for Thursday of the 2nd week of Advent

Ribbon Placement: Liturgy of the Hours Vol. I: Ordinary: 649 Proper of Seasons: 233 Psalter: Thursday, Week II, 873 Christian Prayer: Does not contain Office of Readings Office of Readings for Thursday of the Second Week of Advent 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. Hear the word of the Lord, all you nations. — Proclaim it to the ends of the earth. READINGS First reading From the book of the prophet Isaiah 26:7-21 The song of the just. The promise of new life The way of the just is smooth; the path of the just you make level. Yes, for your way and your judgments, O Lord, we look to you; Your name and your title are the desire of our souls. My soul yearns for you in the night, yes, my spirit within me keeps vigil for you; When your judgment dawns upon the earth, the world’s inhabitants learn justice. The wicked man, spared, does not learn justice; in an upright land he acts perversely, and sees not the majesty of the Lord. O Lord, your hand is uplifted, but they behold it not; Let them be shamed when they see your zeal for your people: let the fire prepared for your enemies consume them. O Lord, you mete out peace to us, for it is you who have accomplished all we have done. O Lord, our God, other lords than you have ruled us; it is from you only that we can call upon your name. Dead they are, they have no life, shades that cannot rise; For you have punished and destroyed them, and wiped out all memory of them. You have increased the nation, O Lord, increased the nation to your own glory, and extended far all the borders of the land. O Lord, oppressed by your punishment, we cried out in anguish under your chastising. As a woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pains, so were we in your presence, O Lord. We conceived and writhed in pain, giving birth to wind; Salvation we have not achieved for the earth, the inhabitants of the world cannot bring it forth. But your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise; awake and sing, you who lie in the dust. For your dew is a dew of light, and the land of shades gives birth. Go, my people, enter your chambers, and close your doors behind you; Hide yourselves for a brief moment, until the wrath is past. See, the Lord goes forth from his place, to punish the wickedness of the earth’s inhabitants; The earth will reveal the blood upon her, and no longer conceal her slain. RESPONSORY Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 12:2 Awake and sing, you who sleep in the earth, — for the dew of the Lord is a dew of light. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awaken. — for the dew of the Lord is a dew of light. Second reading From a sermon by Saint Peter Chrysologus, bishop Love desires to see God When God saw the world falling to ruin because of fear, he immediately acted to call it back to himself with love. He invited it by his grace, preserved it by his love, and embraced it with compassion. When the earth had become hardened in evil, God sent the flood both to punish and to release it. He called Noah to be the father of a new era, urged him with kind words, and showed that he trusted him; he gave him fatherly instruction about the present calamity, and through his grace, consoled him with hope for the future. But God did not merely issue commands; rather with Noah sharing the work, he filled the ark with the future seed of the whole world. The sense of loving fellowship thus engendered removed servile fear, and a mutual love could continue to preserve what shared labor had effected. God called Abraham out of the heathen world, symbolically lengthened his name, and made him the father of all believers. God walked with him on his journeys, and protected him in foreign lands, enriched him with earthly possessions, and honored him with victories. He made a covenant with him, saved him from harm, accepted his hospitality, and astonished him by giving him the offspring he had despaired of. Favored with so many graces and drawn by such great sweetness of divine love, Abraham was to learn to love God rather than fear him, and love rather than fear was to inspire his worship. God comforted Jacob by a dream during his flight, roused him to combat upon his return, and encircled him with a wrestler’s embrace to teach him not to be afraid of the author of the conflict, but to love him. God called Moses as a father would, and with fatherly affection invited him to become the liberator of his people. In all the events we have recalled, the flame of divine love enkindled human hearts and its intoxication overflowed into men’s senses. Wounded by love, they longed to look upon God with their bodily eyes. Yet how could our narrow human vision apprehend God, whom the whole world cannot contain? But the law of love is not concerned with what will be, what ought to be, what can be. Love does not reflect; it is unreasonable and knows no moderation. Love refuses to be consoled when its goal proves impossible, despises all hindrances to the attainment of its object. Love destroys the lover if he cannot obtain what he loves; love follows its own promptings, and does not think of right and wrong. Love inflames desire which impels it toward things that are forbidden. But why continue? It is intolerable for love not to see the object of its longing. That is why whatever reward they merited was nothing to the saints if they could not see the Lord. A love that desires to see God may not have reasonableness on its side, but it is the evidence of filial love. It gave Moses the temerity to say: If I have found favor in your eyes, show me your face. It inspired the psalmist to make the same prayer: Show me your face. Even the pagans made their images for this purpose: they wanted actually to see what they mistakenly revered. RESPONSORY See Isaiah 66:13; 1 Kings 11:36; Isaiah 66:14; 46:13 As a mother comforts her sons, so will I comfort you, says the Lord; help will come to you from the city of Jerusalem which I have chosen. — You shall see this, and your heart will rejoice. I will give salvation in Zion and my glory in Jerusalem. — You shall see this, and your heart will rejoice. CONCLUDING PRAYER Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the paths of your Only Begotten Son, that through his coming, we may be found worthy to serve you with minds made pure. 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.

Dec 12, Invitatory for Friday of the 2nd week of Advent

Lord, open my lips. — And my mouth will proclaim your praise. Ant. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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. Come, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come. 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, let us worship the Lord, the King who is to come.

Dec 12, Office of Readings for Friday of the 2nd week of Advent

Ribbon Placement: Liturgy of the Hours Vol. I: Ordinary: 649 Proper of Seasons: 242 Psalter: Friday, Week II, 890 Christian Prayer: Does not contain Office of Readings. Office of Readings for Friday of the 2nd Week of Advent 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 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me by the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a table for me in the presence of my enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of my Lord for ever. 𝄞"Psalm 23" by Melinda Kirigin-Voss [https://divineoffice.org/melinda-kirigin-voss/] • Available on iTunes [https://itunes.apple.com/nz/album/yesterday-today-and-forever/id418013978] • Text from Psalm 23 King James Version; Used wih permission • Albums that contain this Hymn: Yesterday, Today, and Forever PSALMODY Ant. 1 Lord, in your anger, do not punish me. Psalm 38 A sinner in extreme danger prays earnestly to God All his friends were standing at a distance. (Luke 23:49) I O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger; do not punish me, Lord, in your rage. Your arrows have sunk deep in me; your hand has come down upon me. Through your anger all my body is sick: through my sin, there is no health in my limbs. My guilt towers higher than my head; it is a weight too heavy to bear. 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, in your anger, do not punish me. Ant. 2 Lord, you know all my longings. II My wounds are foul and festering, the result of my own folly. I am bowed and brought to my knees. I go mourning all the day long. All my frame burns with fever; all my body is sick. Spent and utterly crushed, I cry aloud in anguish of heart. O Lord, you know all my longing: my groans are not hidden from you. My heart throbs, my strength is spent; the very light has gone from my eyes. My friends avoid me like a leper; those closest to me stand afar off. Those who plot against my life lay snares; those who seek my ruin speak of harm, planning treachery all the day long. 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 know all my longings. Ant. 3 I confess my guilt to you, Lord; do not abandon me, for you are my Savior. III But I am like the deaf who cannot hear, like the dumb unable to speak. I am like a man who hears nothing in whose mouth is no defense. I count on you, O Lord: it is you, Lord God, who will answer. I pray: Do not let them mock me, those who triumph if my foot should slip.” For I am on the point of falling and my pain is always before me. I confess that I am guilty and my sin fills me with dismay. My wanton enemies are numberless and my lying foes are many. They repay me evil for good and attack me for seeking what is right. O Lord, do not forsake me! My God, do not stay afar off! Make haste and come to my help, O Lord, my God, my savior! 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 Do not abandon us, Lord our God; you did not forget the broken body of your Christ, nor the mockery his love received. We, your children, are weighed down with sin; give us the fullness of your mercy. Ant. I confess my guilt to you, Lord; do not abandon me, for you are my Savior. 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. Let your compassion come upon me, Lord. — Your salvation, true to your promise. READINGS First reading From the book of the prophet Isaiah  27:1-13 The Lord cares for his vineyard once again On that day, The Lord will punish with his sword that is cruel, great, and strong, Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the coiled serpent; and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. On that day – The pleasant vineyard, sing about it! I, the Lord, am its keeper, I water it every moment; Lest anyone harm it, night and day I guard it. I am not angry, but if I were to find briers and thorns, In battle I should march against them; I should burn them all. Expunging and expelling, I should strive against them, carrying them off with my cruel wind in time of storm. In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall sprout and blossom, covering all the world with fruit. Is he to be smitten as his smiter was smitten? or slain as his slayer was slain? Or shall he cling to me for refuge? He must make peace with me; peace shall he make with me! This, then, shall be the expiation of Jacob’s guilt, this the whole fruit of the removal of his sin: He shall pulverize all the stones of the altars like pieces of chalk; no sacred poles or incense altars shall stand. For the fortified city shall be desolate, an abandoned pasture, a forsaken wilderness, where calves shall browse and lie. Its boughs shall be destroyed, its branches shall wither and be broken off, and women shall come to build a fire with them. This is not an understanding people; therefore their maker shall not spare them, nor shall he who formed them have mercy on them. On that day, The Lord shall beat out the grain between the Euphrates and the Wadi of Egypt, and you shall be gleaned one by one, O sons of Israel. On that day, A great trumpet shall blow, and the lost in the land of Assyria and the outcasts in the land of Egypt Shall come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain, in Jerusalem. RESPONSORY See Matthew 24:31; Isaiah 27:13 The Lord will send forth his angels with a mighty trumpet blast; — they will gather his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. They shall come and worship the Lord on his holy mountain in Jerusalem. — They will gather his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. Second reading From a treatise Against Heresies by St Irenaeus, bishop Eve and Mary The Lord, coming into his own creation in visible form, was sustained by his own creation which he himself sustains in being. His obedience on the tree of the cross reversed the disobedience at the tree in Eden; the good news of the truth announced by an angel to Mary, a virgin subject to a husband, undid the evil lie that seduced Eve, a virgin espoused to a husband. As Eve was seduced by the word of an angel and so fled from God after disobeying his word, Mary in her turn was given the good news by the word of an angel, and bore God in obedience to his word. As Eve was seduced into disobedience to God, so Mary was persuaded into obedience to God; thus the Virgin Mary became the advocate of the virgin Eve. Christ gathered all things into one, by gathering them into himself. He declared war against our enemy, crushed him who at the beginning had taken us captive in Adam, and trampled on his head, in accordance with God’s words to the serpent in Genesis: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall lie in wait for your head, and you shall lie in wait for his heel. The one lying in wait for the serpent’s head is the one who was born in the likeness of Adam from the woman, the Virgin. This is the seed spoken of by Paul in the letter to the Galatians: The law of works was in force until the seed should come to whom the promise was made. He shows this even more clearly in the same letter when he says: When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman. The enemy would not have been defeated fairly if his vanquisher had not been born of a woman, because it was through a woman that he had gained mastery over man in the beginning, and set himself up as man’s adversary. That is why the Lord proclaims himself the Son of Man, the one who renews in himself that first man from whom the race born of woman was formed; as by a man’s defeat our race fell into the bondage of death, so by a man’s victory we were to rise again to life. RESPONSORY See Luke 1:26, 27, 30, 31, 32 The angel Gabriel was sent to the Virgin Mary who was betrothed to Joseph. The light filled her with fear, but the angel said to her: Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. — Behold you shall conceive and bear a son, and he will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of David, his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob for ever. — Behold you shall conceive and bear a son, and he will be called the Son of the Most High. CONCLUDING PRAYER Grant that your people, we pray, almighty God, may be ever watchful for the coming of your Only Begotten Son, that as the author of our salvation himself has taught us, we may hasten alert and with lighted lamps to meet him when he comes. 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.