The Measure of Everything
Sunday morning has a peculiar way of making ordinary things larger.
The church bell sounds farther away. The coffee seems less like fuel and more like a gift. A familiar road to Mass becomes, for an hour, a road travelled by generations. Even the people beside us—the spouse we know too well, the child who left something on the floor again, the neighbor whose opinions we have heard quite enough of—appear under a different light.
And into this very ordinary world Christ gives an answer of almost frightening simplicity.
Love God.
Love your neighbor.
Everything else hangs from these.
The astonishing thing is not that Christianity has so many rules. It is that, at the center, it has so few.
Let us begin the morning by turning toward the One who is Love.
OPENING VERSE
Lord, open my lips.
And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
INVITATORY
Antiphon: Come, let us adore the Lord, for he hath made us and called us to love.
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.
Antiphon: Come, let us adore the Lord, for he hath made us and called us to love.
PSALMODY
Psalm 117 (118)
Antiphon: Give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Give praise to the Lord, for he is good:
for his mercy endureth for ever.
Let Israel now say, that he is good:
that his mercy endureth for ever.
Let the house of Aaron now say,
that his mercy endureth for ever.
Let them that fear the Lord now say,
that his mercy endureth for ever.
In my trouble I called upon the Lord:
and the Lord heard me, and enlarged me.
The Lord is my helper:
I will not fear what man can do unto me.
The Lord is my helper:
and I will look over my enemies.
It is good to confide in the Lord,
rather than to have confidence in man.
It is good to trust in the Lord,
rather than to trust in princes.
All nations compassed me about;
and in the name of the Lord I have been revenged on them.
Surrounding me they compassed me about:
and in the name of the Lord I have been revenged on them.
They surrounded me like bees,
and they burned like fire among thorns:
and in the name of the Lord I was revenged on them.
Being pushed I was overturned that I might fall:
but the Lord supported me.
The Lord is my strength and my praise:
and he is become my salvation.
The voice of rejoicing and of salvation
is in the tabernacles of the just.
The right hand of the Lord hath wrought strength:
the right hand of the Lord hath exalted me:
the right hand of the Lord hath wrought strength.
I shall not die, but live:
and shall declare the works of the Lord.
The Lord chastising hath chastised me:
but he hath not delivered me over to death.
Open ye to me the gates of justice:
I will go into them, and give praise to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord:
the just shall enter into it.
I will give glory to thee because thou hast heard me:
and art become my salvation.
The stone which the builders rejected;
the same is become the head of the corner.
This is the Lord’s doing:
and it is wonderful in our eyes.
This is the day which the Lord hath made:
let us be glad and rejoice therein.
O Lord, save me:
O Lord, give good success.
Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.
The Lord is God, and he hath shone upon us.
Appoint a solemn day, with shady boughs,
even to the horn of the altar.
Thou art my God, and I will praise thee:
thou art my God, and I will exalt thee.
I will praise thee, because thou hast heard me,
and art become my salvation.
O praise ye the Lord, for he is good:
for his mercy endureth for ever.
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.
Antiphon: Give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Canticle — Daniel 3
Antiphon: Let every creature bless the Lord, for his mercy endureth for ever.
Blessed art thou, O Lord, the God of our fathers:
and worthy to be praised, and glorified, and exalted above all for ever.
And blessed is the holy name of thy glory:
and worthy to be praised and exalted above all, in all ages.
Blessed art thou in the holy temple of thy glory:
and exceedingly to be praised and exceeding glorious for ever.
Blessed art thou on the throne of thy kingdom:
and exceedingly to be praised and exalted above all for ever.
Blessed art thou, that beholdest the depths, and sittest upon the cherubims:
and worthy to be praised and exalted above all for ever.
Blessed art thou in the firmament of heaven:
and worthy of praise, and glorious for ever.
All ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
Antiphon: Let every creature bless the Lord, for his mercy endureth for ever.
Psalm 150
Antiphon: Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
Praise ye the Lord in his holy places:
praise ye him in the firmament of his power.
Praise ye him for his mighty acts:
praise ye him according to the multitude of his greatness.
Praise him with sound of trumpet:
praise him with psaltery and harp.
Praise him with timbrel and choir:
praise him with strings and organs.
Praise him on high sounding cymbals:
praise him on cymbals of joy:
Let every spirit praise the Lord.
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.
Antiphon: Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
SHORT READING
Ezekiel 36:25–27
I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness, and I will cleanse you from all your idols.
And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my spirit in the midst of you: and I will cause you to walk in my commandments, and to keep my judgments, and do them.
SHORT RESPONSORY
Create in us a clean heart, O God.
And renew a right spirit within us.
Teach us to love thee in all things.
And to love our neighbor for thy sake.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
Create in us a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within us.
THE GOSPEL OF THE DAY
Matthew 22:34–40
But the Pharisees hearing that he had silenced the Sadducees, came together:
And one of them, a doctor of the law, asking him, tempting him:
Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said to him:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
And the second is like to this:
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.
BENEDICTUS
Antiphon: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and thy neighbour as thyself.
Canticle of Zachary — Luke 1:68–79
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.
Antiphon: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and thy neighbour as thyself.
INTERCESSIONS
Christ our Lord has joined the love of God and the love of neighbor so closely that they cannot be torn apart. Trusting in his mercy, let us pray:
Lord, enlarge our hearts in love.
For the Holy Church: that her worship of God may always overflow into mercy, courage, hospitality, and service to those most in need,
Lord, enlarge our hearts in love.
For the Holy Father, our bishops, priests, deacons, religious, missionaries, and all who proclaim the Gospel: that they may teach the truth without fear and embody it in charity,
Lord, enlarge our hearts in love.
For strangers, immigrants, widows, orphans, the poor, the forgotten, and all whose voices are easily ignored: that they may encounter justice and compassion among the people of God,
Lord, enlarge our hearts in love.
For nations divided by war, suspicion, ideology, race, class, or resentment: that men may rediscover in one another not abstractions or enemies but neighbors,
Lord, enlarge our hearts in love.
For our work and vocations: that the things we build, teach, repair, manage, write, sell, cook, clean, calculate, and create may become acts of service rather than monuments to ourselves,
Lord, enlarge our hearts in love.
For our homes and families: that familiarity may never make us careless of those nearest to us, and that patience, forgiveness, laughter, and gratitude may dwell beneath our roofs,
Lord, enlarge our hearts in love.
For those who are sick, lonely, frightened, grieving, unemployed, burdened by debt, or uncertain of the future: that Christ may send them both consolation and neighbors willing to help,
Lord, enlarge our hearts in love.
For those whom we find difficult to love—and for those who find us difficult to love—that grace may accomplish what temperament cannot,
Lord, enlarge our hearts in love.
For our beloved dead and for all the faithful departed: that the God whom they sought imperfectly on earth may receive them into the perfect communion of heaven,
Lord, enlarge our hearts in love.
For ourselves: that we may love God not merely with words, nor our neighbors merely in theory, but with the whole heart Christ asks of us,
Lord, enlarge our hearts in love.