Invitatory
Lord, open thou my lips.
— And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
Antiphon:
Come, let us adore Christ the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
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.
To day 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.
Repeat Antiphon.
Hymn (Public Domain)
Now That the Daylight Fills the Sky
Now that the daylight fills the sky,
We lift our hearts to God on high;
That he, in all we do or say,
Would keep us free from harm today.
Would guard our hearts from sinful thought;
Would turn to good each evil wrought;
And keep us safe from snares of sin
Before the night shall close us in.
All praise to God the Father be,
All praise, eternal Son, to thee;
Whom with the Spirit we adore
For ever and for evermore.
Psalmody
Antiphon 1
The Lord is near to those who call upon him.
Psalm 41 (42)
As the hart panteth after the fountains of water;
so my soul panteth after thee, O God.
My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God;
when shall I come and appear before the face of God?
My tears have been my bread day and night,
whilst it is said to me daily: Where is thy God?
These things I remembered, and poured out my soul in me:
for I shall go over into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God.
With the voice of joy and praise;
the noise of one feasting.
Why art thou sad, O my soul?
and why dost thou trouble me?
Hope in God, for I will still give praise to him:
the salvation of my countenance, and my God.
Glory Be
Antiphon 2
Blessed are those who seek the Lord with a sincere heart.
Canticle — Daniel 3:57-88, 56
O 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 ye 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 dew and hoarfrost, bless the Lord.
O ye frost and cold, bless the Lord.
O ye ice and snow, bless the Lord.
O ye nights and days, bless the Lord.
Let the earth bless the Lord:
let it praise and exalt him above all for ever.
Glory Be
Antiphon 3
Praise the Lord, for he is good.
Psalm 150
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
Short Reading
(Isaiah 55:6-7 — Douay-Rheims)
Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found:
call upon him, while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts,
and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him,
and to our God: for he is bountiful to forgive.
Responsory
The Lord is kind and merciful.
— Slow to anger and rich in mercy.
He pardons all our iniquities.
— And heals all our diseases.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
— The Lord is kind and merciful.
Gospel Canticle
Antiphon
No prophet is accepted in his own country.
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
Repeat Antiphon.
Intercessions
Let us turn to Christ, who calls us to conversion.
Lord, renew our hearts.
You came not to condemn the world but to save it,
— lead us to true repentance.
You call sinners to the banquet of mercy,
— draw us closer to your grace.
You forgive those who return to you,
— teach us to forgive one another.
You fill the Church with the light of your truth,
— make us faithful witnesses to the Gospel.
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 Lord, may thy grace never forsake us:
grant that we may be devoted to thy holy service and at all times obtain thy help.
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.
Paradox of the Day
The sinner who turns toward God travels farther in one step than the self-satisfied man travels in a lifetime.
A Word from G.K. Chesterton
“It is not the sins we confess that condemn us, but the sins we refuse to confess.”
Chestertonian Meditation
There is something curiously stubborn about the human heart. It will walk miles to avoid walking an inch in the right direction.
The prophet Isaiah today says simply: “Seek the Lord while he may be found.” It sounds easy enough. But the difficulty lies not in finding God — for God is everywhere — but in ceasing to hide from Him.
A man may hide from God behind many things. He may hide behind work, which is the most respectable disguise. He may hide behind pleasure, which is the most obvious disguise. Or he may hide behind virtue, which is the most dangerous disguise of all.
For the worst hiding place in the world is the illusion that we have nothing to hide.
Yet Lent is the cheerful season in which the Church gently drags us out from behind these disguises. She does it not by accusation, but by invitation. She simply opens the door of the confessional and lights a candle beside it.
For Christianity has always believed a most astonishing thing: that God is easier to approach than our own pride.
The prodigal son feared the road home for many days. But when he finally walked it, he discovered that the Father had been watching the road all along.
Indeed, the whole Gospel might be summarized this way:
Man spends his life running from God.
God spends eternity running after man.
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