Office of Readings
If this is the first Hour that you are reciting today, you should precede it with the Invitatory Psalm.
O God, come to my aid.
O Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen. Alleluia.
Hail, of paradise the portal!
Tree of Life regained, immortal;
Whence, through thee, all sweetness floweth,
And salvation’s fruit still groweth.
Thou our hearts aright inclinest,
On our life’s way brightly shinest;
Us from God’s just anger savest,
Who to man our Saviour gavest.
Hail! Blest shrine of God the Father,
Thither sinners haste to gather;
Pardon for their guilt obtaining,
Freedom from the foe’s enchaining;
Strength from thee the weak shall borrow,
Comfort, thou, of all who sorrow;
From the final wrath tremendous,
Mother of our Christ, defend us.
Star of ocean! Mother fairest!
Who the name of Mary bearest;
In thy bright illumination
Pales each star and constellation.
Hail, O Father! Hail, sweet Mother!
Hail, O Son of God, our Brother!
Let the hosts of heaven adore thee,
Every spirit bow before thee.
Psalm 49 (50)
True reverence for the Lord |
|---|
The Lord has summoned heaven and earth to witness his judgement of his people.
The Lord, the God of gods has spoken:
he has summoned the whole earth, from east to west.
God has shone forth from Zion in her great beauty.
Our God will come, and he will not be silent.
Before him, a devouring fire;
around him, a tempest rages.
He will call upon the heavens above, and on the earth, to judge his people.
“Bring together before me my chosen ones, who have sealed my covenant with sacrifice.”
The heavens will proclaim his justice; for God is the true judge.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
The Lord has summoned heaven and earth to witness his judgement of his people.
Call on me in the day of trouble, and I will come to free you.
Listen, my people, and I will speak;
Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
I will not reproach you with your sacrifices,
for your burnt offerings are always before me.
But I will not accept calves from your houses,
nor goats from your flocks.
For all the beasts of the forests are mine,
and in the hills, a thousand animals.
All the birds of the air – I know them.
Whatever moves in the fields – it is mine.
If I am hungry, I will not tell you;
for the whole world is mine, and all that is in it.
Am I to eat the flesh of bulls,
or drink the blood of goats?
Offer a sacrifice to God – a sacrifice of praise;
to the Most High, fulfil your vows.
Then you may call upon me in the time of trouble:
I will rescue you, and you will honour me.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
Call on me in the day of trouble, and I will come to free you.
A sacrifice of thanksgiving will honour me.
To the sinner, God has said this:
Why do you recite my statutes?
Why do you dare to speak my covenant?
For you hate what I teach you,
and reject what I tell you.
The moment you saw a thief, you joined him;
you threw in your lot with adulterers.
You spoke evil with your mouth,
and your tongue made plans to deceive.
Solemnly seated, you denounced your own brother;
you poured forth hatred against your own mother’s son.
All this you did, and I was silent;
so you thought that I was just like you.
But I will reprove you –
I will confront you with all you have done.
Understand this, you who forget God;
lest I tear you apart, with no-one there to save you.
Whoever offers up a sacrifice of praise gives me true honour;
whoever follows a sinless path in life will be shown the salvation of God.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
A sacrifice of thanksgiving will honour me.
We ceaselessly pray to God for you.
– For you to have the fullest knowledge of God’s will.
| Reading | 2 Thessalonians 3:1-18 © |
|---|
Finally, brothers, pray for us; pray that the Lord’s message may spread quickly, and be received with honour as it was among you; and pray that we may be preserved from the interference of bigoted and evil people, for faith is not given to everyone. But the Lord is faithful, and he will give you strength and guard you from the evil one, and we, in the Lord, have every confidence that you are doing and will go on doing all that we tell you. May the Lord turn your hearts towards the love of God and the fortitude of Christ.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we urge you, brothers, to keep away from any of the brothers who refuses to work or to live according to the tradition we passed on to you.
You know how you are supposed to imitate us: now we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we ever have our meals at anyone’s table without paying for them; no, we worked night and day, slaving and straining, so as not to be a burden on any of you. This was not because we had no right to be, but in order to make ourselves an example for you to follow.
We gave you a rule when we were with you: do not let anyone have any food if he refuses to do any work. Now we hear that there are some of you who are living in idleness, doing no work themselves but interfering with everyone else’s. In the Lord Jesus Christ, we order and call on people of this kind to go on quietly working and earning the food that they eat.
My brothers, never grow tired of doing what is right. If anyone refuses to obey what I have written in this letter, take note of him and have nothing to do with him, so that he will feel that he is in the wrong; though you are not to regard him as an enemy but as a brother in need of correction.
May the Lord of peace himself give you peace all the time and in every way. The Lord be with you all.
From me, PAUL, these greetings in my own handwriting, which is the mark of genuineness in every letter; this is my own writing. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
When you received God’s message, you received it not as the word of man but as what it truly is, the very word of God.
You have heard the message of the truth, the Good News of your salvation: you received it not as the word of man but as what it truly is, the very word of God.
| Reading | A reading from a sermon by St Proclus of Constantinople |
|---|
| The Lover of men was made man, born of the Virgin |
|---|
Let the heavens rejoice from above, and let the clouds rain down justice, because the Lord has had pity on his people. Let the heavens rejoice from above, for when they were being created in the beginning, Adam too was formed by the Creator from the virgin soil, and appeared as the friend and intimate of God. Let the heavens rejoice from above for the earth has now been sanctified by the Incarnation of our Lord in the flesh, and mankind has, been freed from the sacrifices of idolatry. Let the clouds pour down justice, because today Eve’s fault has been taken away and forgiven by the Virgin Mary’s purity, and by him who was born of her, he who is at the same time God and man. Today Adam, after the ancient condemnation, was freed from the dread sentence of night.
Christ then, according to his own good pleasure, was born of the Virgin, from whom he took flesh by the ordering of divine providence: ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’; and the Virgin therefore became the Mother of God. The Virgin therefore is a mother, because without male seed she brought forth the incarnate Word; in such a way however, that she retained her virginity because of the miraculous birth of him who willed it thus. She is mother of the Divine Word according to the substance of human nature, for he was made flesh in her, and appeared among us and was made one in her, in accordance with the wisdom and will of him who works marvels. ‘Of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ’, as Blessed Paul says.
For he was, as he now is, such as he will be and will remain; for our sake however he became man; the lover of men became man, what he had not been before; but he became man, at the same time remaining God without any change. He therefore became like me, for me; he became what he was not, retaining however what he had been. Finally he became man, that he might make our sufferings his own, and render us fit for adoption as sons, and grant us that kingdom, for which indeed may the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ make us worthy, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit is glory, honour and power, now and for ever and through unending ages. Amen.
He shall descend like rain on the meadow, and the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of God.
God has pitched his tent among men and he will dwell among them. God himself who is among them shall be their God, and the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of God.
Let us pray.
Almighty God,
grant that your faithful who rejoice in the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary
may be delivered from every evil here on earth through her prayer
and come to the enduring joys of heaven.
[We make our prayer] 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.
Let us bless the Lord.
– Thanks be to God.
The psalms and canticles here are our own translation. The Grail translation of the psalms, which is used liturgically in most of the English-speaking world, cannot be displayed on the Web for copyright reasons. The Universalis downloads do contain the Grail translation of the psalms.
