Wednesday 10 December 2025 (other days)
Using calendar: Australia - Perth. You can change this.
Pages
About Today · Readings at Mass · Office of Readings · Morning Prayer · Terce · Sext · None · Evening Prayer · Night Prayer · Yearly calendarLinks
· Spoken Word · Donate · Tweet · Show QR codeOffice of Readings
If this is the first Hour that you are reciting today, you should precede it with the Invitatory Psalm.Based on the liturgy for the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
| INTRODUCTION |
|---|
O God, come to our aid.
O Lord, make haste to help us.
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.
| Hymn |
|---|
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 38 (39)
A prayer in sickness
We groan inwardly and await the redemption of our bodies.
I said, “I will watch my ways,
I will try not to sin in my speech.
I will set a guard on my mouth,
for as long as my enemies are standing against me.”
I stayed quiet and dumb, spoke neither evil nor good,
but my pain was renewed.
My heart grew hot within me,
and fire blazed in my thoughts.
Then I spoke out loud:
“Lord, make me know my end.
Let me know the number of my days,
so that I know how short my life is to be.”
All the length of my days is a handsbreadth or two,
the expanse of my life is as nothing before you.
For in your sight all men are nothingness:
man passes away, like a shadow.
Nothingness, although he is busy:
he builds up treasure, but who will collect it?
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.
We groan inwardly and await the redemption of our bodies.
Psalm 38 (39)
Lord, hear my prayer: do not be deaf to my tears.
What, now, can I look forward to, Lord?
My hope is in you.
Rescue me from all my sins,
do not make me a thing for fools to laugh at.
I have sworn to be dumb, I will not open my mouth:
for it is at your hands that I am suffering.
Aim your blows away from me,
for I am crushed by the weight of your hand.
You rebuke and chastise us for our sins.
Like the moth you consume all we desire
– for all men are nothingness.
Listen, Lord, to my prayer:
turn your ear to my cries.
Do not be deaf to my weeping,
for I come as a stranger before you,
a wanderer like my fathers before me.
Turn away from me, give me respite,
before I leave this world,
before I am no more.
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.
Lord, hear my prayer: do not be deaf to my tears.
Psalm 51 (52)
Against calumny
I trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever.
Why do you take pride in your malice,
you expert in evil-doing?
All day long you plan your traps,
your tongue is sharp as a razor –
you master of deceit!
You have chosen malice over kindness;
you speak lies rather than the truth;
your tongue is in love with every deceit.
For all this, in the end God will destroy you.
He will tear you out and expel you from your dwelling,
uproot you from the land of the living.
The upright will see and be struck with awe:
they will deride the evil-doer.
“Here is the man who did not make God his refuge,
but put his hope in the abundance of his riches
and in the power of his stratagems.”
But I flourish like an olive in the palace of God.
I hope in the kindness of God,
for ever, and through all ages.
I shall praise you for all time for what you have done.
I shall put my hope in your name and in its goodness
in the sight of your chosen ones.
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.
I trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever.
℣. Blessed are those who hear the word of God.
℟. And keep it in their hearts.
| First Reading |
|---|
| Isaiah 25:6-26:6 |
God’s feast. The song of the redeemed
On this mountain,
the Lord of hosts will prepare for all peoples
a banquet of rich food, a banquet of fine wines,
of food rich and juicy, of fine strained wines.
On this mountain he will remove
the mourning veil covering all peoples,
and the shroud enwrapping all nations,
he will destroy Death for ever.
The Lord will wipe away
the tears from every cheek;
he will take away his people’s shame
everywhere on earth,
for the Lord has said so.
That day, it will be said: See, this is our God
in whom we hoped for salvation;
the Lord is the one in whom we hoped.
We exult and we rejoice
that he has saved us;
for the hand of the Lord
rests on this mountain.
Moab is trodden down where he stands
as straw is trodden in the dung pit;
and there he stretches out his hands
like a swimmer stretching out his hands to swim.
But the Lord curbs his pride
and whatever his hands attempt.
Your arrogant, lofty walls
he destroys, he overthrows,
he flings them in the dust.
That day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
to guard us he has set
wall and rampart about us.
Open the gates! Let the upright nation come in,
she, the faithful one
whose mind is steadfast, who keeps the peace,
because she trusts in you.
Trust in the Lord for ever,
for the Lord is the everlasting Rock;
he has brought low those who lived high up
in the steep citadel;
he brings it down, brings it down to the ground,
flings it down in the dust:
the feet of the lowly, the footsteps of the poor
trample on it.
| Responsory |
|---|
| Rv 21:3; Is 25:8 |
℟. I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne: Now God’s home is with men! He will live with them,* and they shall be his people and he will be their God.
℣. The Lord God will swallow up death for ever, and will wipe away tears from all faces,* and they shall be his people and he will be their God.
| Second Reading |
|---|
| A letter of Pope John Paul II |
Mary, bodily and spiritual space of the Incarnation
The Holy House of Loreto is not only a “relic”, but also a precious and true “icon”. It is an “icon” not of abstract truths, but of an event and a mystery: the Incarnation of the Word.
The Incarnation, which is remembered within these sacred walls, at once regains its genuine biblical meaning. It is not just a doctrine concerning the union between the divine and the human, but rather an event that happened at a precise point in time and space, as the words of the Apostle marvellously bring to light: “When the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, born of woman”. Mary is that Woman. She is, so to speak, the “space” both physical and spiritual in which the Incarnation took place. But even the House in which she lived is a tangible reminder of the reality of this mystery.
The memory of the hidden life of Nazareth brings to mind specific questions touching the life of each man and each woman. It reawakens the sense of holiness of the family, immediately presenting a whole universe of values, today so threatened, such as faithfulness, respect for life, the education of children, and prayer. Christian families can rediscover all this within the walls of the Holy House, the first and most exemplary “Domestic Church” in history.
The Holy House recalls at the same time the greatness of the vocation to the consecrated life and virginity for the Kingdom, which had its glorious beginnings in the person of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Then, to the young, who in countless numbers come as pilgrims to the Mother’s House, I would like to repeat the words I addressed to them on another occasion: “Walk towards Mary, walk with Mary – Let her fiat echo in your heart”. May the young renew, in light of the lessons of the House of Nazareth, their commitment within the Catholic laity to restoring Christ in hearts, families, culture and society.
There is also here the opportunity for a more in-depth study of the proper efforts in our times to recognise the place of women in the Church and in society. Due to the fact that God “sent his Son born of woman”, every woman was elevated, in Mary, to such a dignity greater than which no other can be conceived.
In addition, no theoretical consideration can ever exalt the dignity of human work more than the simple fact that the Son of God worked in Nazareth and wanted to be called “son of the carpenter”.
Finally, how can we fail to mention the “choice for the poor” that the Church made in the Council and reaffirmed ever more clearly afterwards? The austere and humble walls of the Holy House visually remind us that God himself had inaugurated this choice in Mary, who, as a conciliar text says, “stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently hope for and receive salvation from him”.
Still on this theme of poverty and suffering, the sick have had a privileged place in the history of the Shrine. They were among the first to hasten as pilgrims to the Auspicious House and to make it known to others. Where could they, moreover, be better welcomed, than in the House of Her whom precisely we invoke in the “Litany of Loreto” as “Health of the sick” and “Comforter of the afflicted”?
“May this Shrine of Loreto – as John XXIII said – be always a window opening onto the whole world, re-echoing those hidden voices which make known the sanctification of souls, families and peoples”.
| Responsory |
|---|
℟. You are truly blessed among women, for in you God has set his tent.* You will consecrate many peoples to the Lord.
℣. Heaven itself cannot contain the One whom you bore in your womb.* You will consecrate many peoples to the Lord.
Let us pray.
O God, who, fulfilling the promise made to our Fathers,
chose the Blessed Virgin Mary
to become the Mother of the Saviour,
grant that we may follow her example,
for her humility was pleasing to you
and her obedience profitable to us.
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 praise the Lord.
– Thanks be to God.
The psalms and canticles here are our own translation from the Latin. 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 apps and programs do contain the Grail translation of the psalms.
You can also view this page in Latin and English.
Dates
Today
(Automatic)Wed 10 December
Wednesday of the 2nd week of AdventThu 11 December
Thursday of the 2nd week of Adventor Saint Damasus I, Pope
Fri 12 December
Friday of the 2nd week of Adventor Our Lady of Guadalupe