Invitatory
℣. Lord, open my lips.
℟. And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
Invitatory Antiphon
The Lord is risen, alleluia.
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.
The Lord is risen, alleluia.
Hymn
The Strife Is O’er
The strife is o’er, the battle done; The victory of life is won; The song of triumph has begun: Alleluia.
The powers of death have done their worst, But Christ their legions hath dispersed; Let shouts of holy joy outburst: Alleluia.
He closed the yawning gates of hell; The bars from heaven’s high portals fell; Let hymns of praise his triumph tell: Alleluia.
Lord! by the stripes which wounded thee, From death’s dread sting thy servants free, That we may live and sing to thee: Alleluia.
Psalmody
Antiphon 1
Thou hast blessed thy land, O Lord, alleluia.
Psalm 84 (85)
Lord, thou hast blessed thy land: thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people: thou hast covered all their sins.
Thou hast mitigated all thy anger: thou hast turned away from the wrath of thy indignation. Convert us, O God our saviour: and turn off thy anger from us.
Wilt thou be angry with us for ever: or wilt thou extend thy wrath from generation to generation? Thou wilt turn, O God, and bring us to life: and thy people shall rejoice in thee.
Show us, O Lord, thy mercy; and grant us thy salvation. I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me: for he will speak peace unto his people.
Surely his salvation is near to them that fear him: that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth have met each other: justice and peace have kissed.
Truth is sprung out of the earth: and justice hath looked down from heaven. For the Lord will give goodness: and our earth shall yield her fruit.
Justice shall walk before him: and shall set his steps in the way.
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 1
Thou hast blessed thy land, O Lord, alleluia.
Antiphon 2
My soul hath desired thee in the night, alleluia.
Canticle — Isaiah 26:1–4, 7–9, 12
We have a strong city: a saviour, a wall and a bulwark shall be set therein. Open ye the gates, and let the just nation, that keepeth the truth, enter in.
The old error is passed away: thou wilt keep peace, peace because we have hoped in thee. You have hoped in the Lord for evermore, in the Lord God mighty for ever.
The way of the just is right, the path of the just is right to walk in. And in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, we have patiently waited for thee: thy name, and thy remembrance are the desire of the soul.
My soul hath desired thee in the night: yea, and with my spirit within me in the morning early I will watch to thee. When thou shalt do thy judgments on the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn justice.
Lord, thou wilt give us peace: for thou hast wrought all our works for us.
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 2
My soul hath desired thee in the night, alleluia.
Antiphon 3
Let all nations praise thee, O God, alleluia.
Psalm 66 (67)
May God have mercy on us, and bless us: may he cause the light of his countenance to shine upon us, and may he have mercy on us.
That we may know thy way upon earth: thy salvation in all nations. Let people confess to thee, O God: let all people give praise to thee.
Let the nations be glad and rejoice: for thou judgest the people with justice, and directest the nations upon earth.
Let the people, O God, confess to thee: let all the people give praise to thee: the earth hath yielded her fruit.
May God, our God bless us, may God bless us: and all the ends of the earth fear him.
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 3
Let all nations praise thee, O God, alleluia.
Short Reading
Acts 13:30–33
But God raised him up from the dead the third day: who was seen for many days by them who came up together with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who to this present are his witnesses to the people.
And we declare unto you, that the promise which was made to our fathers, this same God hath fulfilled to our children, raising up Jesus again.
Responsory
℣. The Lord is risen from the sepulchre, alleluia, alleluia.
℟. He who hung for us upon the tree, alleluia, alleluia.
℣. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
℟. The Lord is risen from the sepulchre, alleluia, alleluia.
Benedictus Antiphon
Father, glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee, alleluia.
Benedictus — 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.
Intercessions
Christ has risen from the dead and sits at the right hand of the Father. Let us pray to him with confidence.
℟. Lord Jesus, keep thy people in Easter joy.
You appeared to Mary Magdalene when she sought you in sorrow, — comfort all who mourn or labor under hidden grief.
You walked beside the disciples on the road, — remain with thy Church in every age of confusion.
You showed thy wounds to doubting Thomas, — strengthen the faith of those tempted to despair.
You prepared breakfast for thy apostles by the sea, — bless the work of ordinary men and women today.
You ascended to the Father and intercede for us, — bring our beloved dead into the courts of heaven.
Our Father
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Concluding Prayer
O God, who hast glorified thy Son and drawn our eyes toward heaven, keep us faithful in the world without making us worldly. Let the victory of Christ be our courage today, and let our ordinary duties shine with the light of the Resurrection.
Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
Gospel of the Day
John 17:1–11a
At that time Jesus lifting up his eyes to heaven, said: Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he may give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him.
Now this is eternal life: that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
And now glorify thou me, O Father, with thyself, with the glory which I had, before the world was, with thee. I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world.
Thine they were, and to me thou gavest them: and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things which thou hast given me are from thee: Because the words which thou gavest me, I have given to them.
And they have received them, and have known in very deed that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me: because they are thine. And all my things are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am not in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee.
Paradox of the Day
Christ is nearest to leaving His disciples at the very moment He is most deeply giving Himself to them.
G.K. Chesterton Quote
“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”
— G.K. Chesterton
Chestertonian Reflection
There is a strange majesty in farewell. The modern man imagines that glory means arrival, applause, and possession. But Our Lord speaks of glory on the edge of departure, betrayal, and death. “Father, the hour is come.” The hour of apparent defeat is named as the hour of triumph.
This is the Christian contradiction at the heart of all things: that love is most powerful when it is most poured out. Christ does not cling to the world in order to save it. He gives Himself away. He goes to the Father, and in going, He draws the little frightened company of apostles into the very life of God.
So it is with us. We want faith to remove difficulty. Christ uses difficulty to reveal faith. We want certainty before obedience. Christ gives light as we walk. We want glory without surrender. Christ shows that surrender is the road by which glory enters the world.
Today, let us not despise the hidden hour, the difficult duty, the prayer said with distraction, the work done without applause. These may be the very places where God is glorified.
Chesterton Radio Sign‑Off
This has been Chesterton Radio Morning Prayer.
Broadcast from Atchison, Kansas — where the bells of Benedictine still ring above the river valley, and where ordinary mornings are still full of impossible things.
May the risen Christ keep you in wonder, courage, and joy throughout this day.