✠ Invitatory
V. O Lord, open thou my lips.
R. And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
Ant. Come, let us adore the Lord, for He is our God.
Psalm 94 (95)
Come let us praise the Lord with joy:
let us joyfully sing to God our saviour.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving;
and make a joyful noise to him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
For in his hand are all the ends of the earth:
and the heights of the mountains are his.
For the sea is his, and he made it:
and his hands formed the dry land.
Come let us adore and fall down:
and weep before the Lord that made us.
For he is the Lord our God:
and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts:
as in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Where your fathers tempted me, they proved me, and saw my works.
Forty years long was I offended with that generation,
and I said: These always err in heart.
And these men have not known my ways:
so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now,
and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Ant. Come, let us adore the Lord, for He is our God.
✠ Psalmody
Ant. 1
The Lord is wonderful in His saints: come, let us adore Him.
Psalm 62 (63)
O God, my God, to thee do I watch at break of day.
For thee my soul hath thirsted;
for thee my flesh, O how many ways!
In a desert land, and where there is no way, and no water:
so in the sanctuary have I come before thee,
to see thy power and thy glory.
For thy mercy is better than lives:
thee my lips shall praise.
Thus will I bless thee all my life long:
and in thy name I will lift up my hands.
Let my soul be filled as with marrow and fatness:
and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.
If I have remembered thee upon my bed,
I will meditate on thee in the morning.
Because thou hast been my helper.
And I will rejoice under the covert of thy wings:
My soul hath stuck close to thee:
thy right hand hath received me.
Glory be…
Ant. 2
Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord.
Canticle — Daniel 3
All ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye angels of the Lord, bless the Lord:
O ye heavens, bless the Lord.
O all ye waters that are above the heavens, bless the Lord:
O all ye powers of the Lord, bless the Lord.
O ye sun and moon, bless the Lord:
O ye stars of heaven, bless the Lord.
O every shower and dew, bless the Lord:
O all ye spirits of God, bless the Lord.
O ye fire and heat, bless the Lord:
O ye cold and heat, bless the Lord.
O ye ice and snow, bless the Lord:
O ye nights and days, bless the Lord.
O ye light and darkness, bless the Lord:
O ye lightnings and clouds, bless the Lord.
Let the earth bless the Lord:
let it praise and exalt him above all for ever.
Glory be…
Ant. 3
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
Psalm 149
Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle:
let his praise be in the church of the saints.
Let Israel rejoice in him that made him:
and let the children of Sion be joyful in their king.
Let them praise his name in choir:
let them sing to him with the timbrel and the psaltery.
For the Lord is well pleased with his people:
and he will exalt the meek unto salvation.
The saints shall rejoice in glory:
they shall be joyful in their beds.
The high praises of God shall be in their mouth:
and two-edged swords in their hands.
Glory be…
✠ Short Reading
1 Corinthians 15:20–22
But now Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of them that sleep.
For by a man came death, and by a man the resurrection of the dead.
And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.
✠ Benedictus
Ant. I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me shall not die for ever.
Canticle of Zachary (Luke 1:68–79)
(Douay-Rheims)
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel;
because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people:
And hath raised up an horn of salvation to us,
in the house of David his servant:
As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets,
who are from the beginning:
Salvation from our enemies,
and from the hand of all that hate us:
To perform mercy to our fathers,
and to remember his holy testament,
The oath, which he swore to Abraham our father,
that he would grant to us,
That being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
we may serve him without fear,
In holiness and justice before him,
all our days.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest:
for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways:
To give knowledge of salvation to his people,
unto the remission of their sins:
Through the bowels of the mercy of our God,
in which the Orient from on high hath visited us:
To enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death:
to direct our feet into the way of peace.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now,
and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Ant. I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me shall not die for ever
✠ Intercessions
Let us praise Christ, who has promised to raise up those who believe in Him.
— Lord, be our life and our resurrection.
You are the glory of your faithful people,
— raise us up on the last day.
You have destroyed death by dying,
— help us to die daily to sin.
You have promised Paradise to the repentant thief,
— remember us when you come into your kingdom.
✠ Concluding Prayer
O God, who through the humiliation of thy Son hast raised up a fallen world, grant unto thy faithful people perpetual gladness; and since thou hast delivered them from the danger of everlasting death, make them partakers of eternal joys. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
✨ Paradox of the Day
The only way to rise is to kneel.
“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”
— G. K. Chesterton
🌿 Reflection (Chestertonian)
The modern world believes that resurrection is an event; Christianity insists it is a Person. The world says, “Rise and conquer.” Christ says, “Kneel and live.”
We are forever attempting to ascend by stacking ladders against the sky. We build our reputations, our comforts, our securities—only to discover that ladders are terribly fragile things. They tremble. They tip. They betray.
But a man who kneels cannot fall far.
The Christian kneels not because he despises life, but because he expects more of it. He kneels because he believes that the earth is not the ceiling but the floor. He bows his head because he knows it shall be lifted higher than pride could ever hoist it.
In Adam, we inherited the habit of climbing. In Christ, we inherit the art of rising.
The resurrection is not merely something that happened to Christ long ago; it is something happening to us now—each time we forgive instead of retaliate, repent instead of excuse, pray instead of panic. Every small surrender is a rehearsal for glory.
The world seeks life by assertion. The saint finds it by surrender.
And so, this morning, we kneel—not in defeat, but in expectation.
For the One before whom we kneel is already risen.
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