Invitatory
Lord, open thou my lips.
— And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
Antiphon: Christ the Lord was transfigured before them: come, let us adore him.
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: Christ the Lord was transfigured before them: come, let us adore him.
Hymn (Public Domain)
O blest Creator of the light,
Who mak’st the day with radiance bright,
And o’er the forming world didst call
The light from chaos first of all;
Whose wisdom joined in meet array
The morn and eve, and named them Day:
Night comes with all its darkling fears;
Regard thy people’s prayers and tears.
Lest, sunk in sin and whelmed with strife,
They lose the gift of endless life;
While thinking but the thoughts of time,
They weave new chains of woe and crime.
But grant them grace that they may strain
The heavenly gate and prize to gain:
Each harmful lure aside to cast,
And purge away each error past.
O Father, that we ask be done,
Through Jesus Christ, thine only Son;
Who, with the Holy Ghost and thee,
Shall live and reign eternally. Amen.
Psalmody
Antiphon 1
The glory of the Lord will shine upon thee, Jerusalem.
Psalm 62 (63)
O God, my God, to thee do I watch at break of day.
For thee my soul hath thirsted; for thee my flesh, O how many ways!
In a desert land, and where there is no way and no water:
so in the sanctuary have I come before thee, to see thy power and thy glory.
For thy mercy is better than lives:
thee my lips will praise.
Thus will I bless thee all my life long:
and in thy name I will lift up my hands.
Let my soul be filled as with marrow and fatness:
and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.
If I have remembered thee upon my bed,
I will meditate on thee in the morning.
Because thou hast been my helper.
And I will rejoice under the covert of thy wings.
My soul hath stuck close to thee:
thy right hand hath received 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.
Antiphon: The glory of the Lord will shine upon thee, Jerusalem.
Antiphon 2
The Lord will build up Jerusalem and reveal his glory.
Canticle — Daniel 3
Bless the Lord, all ye works of the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
Bless the Lord, ye angels of the Lord:
bless the Lord, ye heavens.
Bless the Lord, all ye waters that are above the heavens:
bless the Lord, all ye powers of the Lord.
Bless the Lord, O sun and moon:
bless the Lord, ye stars of heaven.
Bless the Lord, every shower and dew:
bless the Lord, all ye spirits of God.
Bless the Lord, ye fire and heat:
bless the Lord, cold and heat.
Bless the Lord, ye dews and hoarfrosts:
bless the Lord, ye frost and cold.
Bless the Lord, ye ice and snow:
bless the Lord, ye nights and days.
Bless the Lord, O ye light and darkness:
bless the Lord, ye lightnings and clouds.
Let the earth bless the Lord:
let it praise and exalt him above all 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: The Lord will build up Jerusalem and reveal his glory.
Antiphon 3
The mountains and hills shall sing praise before God.
Psalm 149
Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle:
let his praise be in the church of the saints.
Let Israel rejoice in him that made him:
and let the children of Sion be joyful in their king.
Let them praise his name in choir:
let them sing to him with the timbrel and the psaltery.
For the Lord is well pleased with his people:
and he will exalt the meek unto salvation.
Let the saints rejoice in glory:
they shall be joyful in their beds.
The high praises of God shall be in their mouth:
and two-edged swords in their hands.
To execute vengeance upon the nations,
chastisements among the people:
To bind their kings with fetters,
and their nobles with manacles of iron.
To execute upon them the judgment that is written:
this glory is to all his saints.
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: The mountains and hills shall sing praise before God.
Short Reading
(Philippians 3:20-21)
But our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of his glory, according to the operation whereby also he is able to subdue all things unto himself.
Benedictus
Antiphon:
Jesus took Peter and James and John his brother and brought them up into a high mountain apart; and he was transfigured before them.
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:
Jesus took Peter and James and John his brother and brought them up into a high mountain apart; and he was transfigured before them.
Intercessions
Let us praise Christ the Lord, who reveals his glory to his disciples and strengthens the faith of his Church.
— Lord, show us the light of thy countenance.
Lord Jesus, who revealed thy glory upon the mountain before thy Passion,
— strengthen thy Church in the days of trial.
Thou who art the light that shines in darkness,
— guide all who seek truth.
Thou who callest thy disciples to follow thee through the Cross to the Resurrection,
— strengthen the weak and comfort the suffering.
Thou who wilt transform our lowly bodies to be like thy glorious body,
— keep us faithful in hope.
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 commanded us to hear thy beloved Son, nourish our souls inwardly with thy word, that with spiritual sight made pure we may rejoice to behold thy glory.
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 apostles climbed a mountain to see Christ’s glory — and then were told to walk back down into the ordinary world.
G. K. Chesterton
“The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.”
A Chestertonian Reflection
There is a peculiar danger in religion that no one speaks of very often: the danger of wanting the vision without the valley.
The apostles on the mountain saw Christ as He truly was — radiant, terrible, and beautiful with a brightness that made even the sun seem like a candle. One can hardly blame Peter for wishing to remain there permanently. Indeed, most of us would gladly build three tabernacles and never return to the plain.
But Christ does not allow it.
The strange thing about the Transfiguration is not that it happened. The strange thing is that it ended.
For Christianity is not the religion of the mountaintop experience. It is the religion of descending again into the village — where the sick must be healed, the confused instructed, and the stubborn forgiven.
The vision is given not so we may escape the world, but so that we may endure it.
It is a little like lighting a lantern before walking into a dark forest. One does not carry the lantern in order to admire the lantern; one carries it in order to continue walking.
God grants moments of clarity — flashes of divine light — not to spare us the road but to show us that the road leads somewhere.
And Lent, curiously enough, is precisely that road.
It is the long descent from the mountain of glory toward the hill of Calvary — where the same Christ who shone like the sun will appear almost entirely hidden.
But the Christian remembers what the apostles saw.
And because he remembers, he keeps walking.
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