MORNING PRAYER
“O Lord, open thou my mouth.
And my mouth shall declare thy praise.”
“O God, come to my assistance.
O Lord, make haste to help me.”
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.
Alleluia.
Invitatory
Antiphon
Come, let us adore Christ, the gentle King, who refreshes all who come to Him.
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.
Antiphon
Come, let us adore Christ, the gentle King, who refreshes all who come to Him.
Hymn
Morning Has Broken
Morning has broken like the first morning,
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird.
Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning!
Praise for them, springing fresh from the Word!
The Word of God
Short Reading
Isaiah 66:10–14 (Douay-Rheims)
Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all you that mourn for her.
That you may suck, and be filled with the breasts of her consolations: that you may milk out, and flow with delights from the abundance of her glory.
For thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring upon her as it were a river of peace, and as an overflowing torrent the glory of the Gentiles, whom you shall suck: you shall be carried at the breasts, and upon the knees they shall caress you.
As one whom the mother caresseth, so will I comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb, and the hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants.
Short Responsory
V. The Lord is my strength and my praise.
R. The Lord is my strength and my praise.
V. He hath become my salvation.
R. The Lord is my strength and my praise.
V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
R. The Lord is my strength and my praise.
Gospel Canticle
Antiphon
Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.
The 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.
Antiphon
Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.
Intercessions
Let us bless Christ, who came among us with gentleness and truth, and let us pray to Him with confidence:
R. Lord, make us instruments of Your peace.
For Your holy Church throughout the world, that she may proclaim Your Gospel with humility, courage, and joy,
R. Lord, make us instruments of Your peace.
For our Holy Father, all bishops and priests, and for those who preach the Gospel in difficult places,
R. Lord, make us instruments of Your peace.
For our families, friends, neighbors, and those from whom we are estranged, that forgiveness may triumph over resentment,
R. Lord, make us instruments of Your peace.
For those burdened by illness, loneliness, anxiety, unemployment, or grief, that they may discover in Christ the rest that the world cannot give,
R. Lord, make us instruments of Your peace.
For all who work with their hands and minds today, especially those who design, build, teach, heal, protect, and serve others, that their labor may be offered for the glory of God,
R. Lord, make us instruments of Your peace.
For the listeners, readers, supporters, and friends of Chesterton Radio, that together we may continue to build a place where truth is spoken with charity, beauty is celebrated, and Christ is quietly encountered,
R. Lord, make us instruments of Your peace.
For the faithful departed, especially those who have no one to pray for them, that they may rejoice forever in the presence of God,
R. Lord, make us instruments of Your peace.
The Lord’s Prayer
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
Let us pray.
O God, who in the humility of Thy Son hast revealed the greatness of Thy love, grant that, learning from Him who is meek and humble of heart, we may bear one another’s burdens with patience and walk in the freedom of Thy children.
May our work this day be honest, our words gracious, our judgments charitable, and our hearts steadfast in hope, until we come at last to the eternal rest which Thou hast prepared for those who love Thee.
Through the same Christ our Lord.
Amen.
May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.
Gospel • Reflection • Chestertonian Meditation
The Holy Gospel
Matthew 11:25–30
Douay-Rheims
At that time Jesus answered and said: I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones.
Yea, Father; for so hath it seemed good in thy sight.
All things are delivered to me by my Father. And no one knoweth the Son, but the Father: neither doth any one know the Father, but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal him.
Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you.
Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls.
For my yoke is sweet and my burden light.
The Gospel of the Lord.
R. Praise be to Thee, O Christ.
The Paradox of the Day
The world tells us that freedom comes from carrying no burdens at all.
Christ tells us that freedom comes from carrying the right burden with Him.
The man who refuses every yoke soon discovers that he has become the servant of a hundred masters—fashion, ambition, fear, reputation, money, or comfort. Yet the man who kneels before Christ rises lighter than when he stood alone. The Christian paradox is that surrender is the beginning of liberty.
A Voice from G. K. Chesterton
“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”
— G. K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World (1910)
A Chestertonian Meditation
There is something delightfully surprising about our Lord’s invitation. He does not promise to remove every responsibility. He does not offer an escape from work, family, duty, or sacrifice. Instead, He offers Himself.
Modern life has become expert at inventing lighter tools while somehow producing heavier hearts. We save minutes with machines only to spend hours worrying about matters our grandparents would scarcely have imagined. We have learned to move faster without arriving sooner.
Christ proposes another sort of progress. He invites us to exchange one burden for another.
That sounds absurd until we remember that not every burden weighs the same. A backpack filled with stones is heavy because it serves no purpose. A father carrying a sleeping child is also carrying weight, yet no one would call it a hardship. Love has altered the mathematics.
So it is with the yoke of Christ.
His commandments are not lighter because they ask less of us. They are lighter because they teach us to stop carrying ourselves. Pride is exhausting. Pretending to be sufficient is exhausting. Constantly defending our own importance is exhausting.
Humility, strangely enough, is restful.
The saints were among the busiest people who ever lived, yet they possessed an unmistakable peace because they understood that the world did not depend upon them. It depended upon God, who graciously invited them to become fellow workers in His vineyard.
Perhaps that is today’s invitation.
Do the work before you.
Love the people God has placed beside you.
Laugh often.
Give thanks frequently.
And whenever the load begins to feel too heavy, remember that the Carpenter of Nazareth has carried wood before you.
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, meek and humble of heart, teach us to walk beside Thee today. Deliver us from the heavy burdens of pride, anxiety, and self-reliance. Grant that every task we undertake may become an act of love, every interruption an opportunity for charity, and every cross a step toward Thee.
May our homes be filled with gratitude, our work with integrity, and our hearts with the quiet joy that comes from trusting in Thy providence.
For Thou livest and reignest, world without end.
Amen.
Until Tomorrow...
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May the Lord bless you and keep you.
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