Invitatory
Antiphon: Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, who for our sake endured temptation and suffering.
Psalm 94 (95) — Douay-Rheims
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 worship Christ the Lord, who for our sake endured temptation and suffering.
Public — Week 4
Lord, who throughout these forty days
Lord, who throughout these forty days
For us didst fast and pray,
Teach us with thee to mourn our sins,
And close by thee to stay.
As thou with Satan didst contend,
And didst the victory win,
O give us strength in thee to fight,
In thee to conquer sin.
As thirst and hunger thou didst bear,
So teach us, gracious Lord,
To die to self, and daily live
By thy most holy word.
And through these days of penitence,
And through thy Passiontide,
Yea, evermore, in life and death,
Jesus, with us abide. (universalis.com)
Morning Prayer (Lauds)
Psalm 50 (51)
Antiphon: Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit within my bowels. (universalis.com)
Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy.
And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity.
Wash me yet more from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my iniquity,
And my sin is always before me.
To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee:
That thou mayst be justified in thy words and mayst overcome when thou art judged.
For behold I was conceived in iniquities;
And in sins did my mother conceive me.
For behold thou hast loved truth:
The uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom thou hast made manifest to me.
Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed:
Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.
To my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness:
And the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice.
Turn away thy face from my sins,
And blot out all my iniquities.
Create a clean heart in me, O God:
And renew a right spirit within my bowels.
Cast me not away from thy face;
And take not thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,
And strengthen me with a perfect spirit.
I will teach the unjust thy ways:
And the wicked shall be converted to thee.
Deliver me from blood, O God, thou God of my salvation:
And my tongue shall extol thy justice.
O Lord, thou wilt open my lips:
And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
For if thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it:
With burnt offerings thou wilt not be delighted.
A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit:
A contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Deal favourably, O Lord, in thy good will with Sion;
That the walls of Jerusalem may be built up.
Then shalt thou accept the sacrifice of justice, oblations and whole burnt offerings:
Then shall they lay calves upon thy altar.
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.
Canticle — Tobit 13
Antiphon: Rejoice, O Jerusalem: for through thee shall all men be gathered together to the Lord. (universalis.com)
Bless ye the Lord, all his elect, keep days of gladness, and give glory to him.
Jerusalem, city of God, the Lord hath chastised thee for the works of thy hands.
Give glory to the Lord for thy good things, and bless the God eternal,
That he may rebuild his tabernacle in thee, and call back all the captives unto thee,
And thou mayst rejoice for ever and ever.
Thou shalt shine with a glorious light: and all the ends of the earth shall adore thee.
Nations from afar shall come to thee, bringing gifts, and shall adore in thee the Lord:
And they shall esteem thy land as holy.
For they shall call upon the great name in thee.
They shall be cursed that shall despise thee: and they shall be condemned that shall blaspheme thee.
Blessed shall they be that shall build thee up.
But thou shalt rejoice in thy children, because they shall all be blessed, and shall be gathered together to the Lord.
Blessed are all they that love thee, and that rejoice in thy peace.
My soul, bless thou the Lord, because the Lord our God hath delivered Jerusalem his city from all her troubles.
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.
Psalm 147:12–20
Antiphon: Praise thy God, O Sion, who sendeth forth his word to the earth. (universalis.com)
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem: praise thy God, O Sion.
Because he hath strengthened the bolts of thy gates, he hath blessed thy children within thee.
Who hath placed peace in thy borders: and filleth thee with the fat of corn.
Who sendeth forth his speech to the earth: his word runneth swiftly.
Who giveth snow like wool: scattereth mists like ashes.
He sendeth his crystal like morsels: who shall stand before the face of his cold?
He shall send out his word, and shall melt them: his wind shall blow, and the waters shall run.
Who declareth his word to Jacob: his justices and his judgments to Israel.
He hath not done in like manner to every nation: and his judgments he hath not made manifest to them.
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.
Short Reading — Isaiah 53:11–12
My just servant shall justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong, because he hath delivered his soul unto death, and was reputed with the wicked: and he hath borne the sins of many, and hath prayed for the transgressors. (universalis.com)
Short Responsory
V. He shall deliver me from the snare of the hunters.
R. He shall deliver me from the snare of the hunters.
V. And from the sharp word.
R. He shall deliver me from the snare of the hunters.
V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
R. He shall deliver me from the snare of the hunters.
Benedictus
Antiphon: You know me and you know where I came from. Yet I have not come of myself: my Father hath sent me, saith the Lord. (universalis.com)
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
Let us pray earnestly to Christ our Saviour, who redeemed us by his death and resurrection:
R. Lord, have mercy on us. (universalis.com)
You went up to Jerusalem to endure the Passion and enter into glory;
lead thy Church into the paschal feast of eternal life.
R. Lord, have mercy on us.
Thy heart was pierced with a lance;
heal the wounds of our human weakness.
R. Lord, have mercy on us.
Thou madest thy Cross the tree of life;
share thy victory with all the baptized.
R. Lord, have mercy on us.
Thou gavest salvation to the repentant thief;
pardon all our sins.
R. Lord, have mercy on us.
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 those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation.
But deliver us from evil. Amen.
Concluding Prayer
O God, who hast prepared fitting helps for our weakness, grant, we beseech thee, that we may receive with joy the healing effects of thy mercy and show them forth in a holy manner of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen. (Catholic Culture)
Holy Gospel — John 7:1–2, 10, 25–30 (Douay-Rheims)
Jesus walked in Galilee; for he would not walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him.
Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand.
But after his brethren were gone up, then he also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.
Some therefore of Jerusalem said: Is not this he whom they seek to kill?
And behold, he speaketh openly, and they say nothing to him. Have the rulers known for a truth that this is the Christ?
But we know this man, whence he is: but when the Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is.
Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching, and saying: You both know me, and you know whence I am: and I am not come of myself; but he that sent me is true, whom you know not.
I know him, because I am from him, and he hath sent me.
They sought therefore to apprehend him: and no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come. (USCCB)
Paradox of the Day
The men who think they know exactly where Christ ought to come from are the very men who fail to recognize him when he stands before them.
G.K. Chesterton Quote
“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” (Project Gutenberg)
Chestertonian Reflection
There is something almost comic in the Gospel crowd today: they claim to know Our Lord too well to believe in him. He is too local for them, too familiar, too near at hand. They know his town, his manner, his apparent origin; and therefore they imagine they have exhausted his mystery. But this is the standing joke of human pride: man thinks he has explained a thing merely because he has labeled it.
Lent is the season in which the soul learns again that the holiest things arrive disguised as ordinary things. Bread looks like bread until heaven hides in it. A carpenter’s son looks merely provincial until eternity speaks through him. A cross looks like failure until it becomes the throne of the world. The trouble is not that God is absent; the trouble is that he is modest.
That is why gratitude is so near to faith. The grateful man is not the man who has solved everything, but the man who has ceased taking everything for granted. He can still be astonished. He can still be corrected. He can still kneel. And the one thing necessary for meeting Christ is not cleverness, but reverence.
So the prayer for this Friday is not merely, “Lord, explain thyself,” but rather, “Lord, open my eyes.” For when the heart is cleansed, even familiarity becomes a sort of revelation. The village becomes Nazareth. The day becomes a gift. The known world becomes full of unknown glory.
Chesterton Radio
From the Psalter to the paradox, keep the lamp lit.