Invitatory
V. O Lord, open thou my lips.
R. And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
Antiphon: Let us adore Christ the Lord, who redeems us by His Cross.
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 the Lord will not cast off his people:
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.
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: Let us adore Christ the Lord, who redeems us by His Cross.
Hymn (Public Domain Cycle)
“The King of Love My Shepherd Is”
The King of love my Shepherd is,
Whose goodness faileth never;
I nothing lack if I am His
And He is mine forever.
Where streams of living water flow
My ransomed soul He leadeth,
And where the verdant pastures grow
With food celestial feedeth.
Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
But yet in love He sought me;
And on His shoulder gently laid,
And home rejoicing brought me.
Psalmody
Psalm 62 (63) — Thirst for God
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 shall 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.
Glory be to the Father…
Canticle — Daniel 3:57–88
All works of the Lord, bless the Lord
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 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 nights and days, bless the Lord:
O ye light and darkness, bless the Lord.
O ye mountains and hills, bless the Lord:
O all things that spring up in the earth, bless the Lord.
Praise and exalt him above all forever.
Psalm 149 — The Joy of the Saints
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.
The saints shall rejoice in glory:
they shall be joyful in their beds.
Glory be to the Father…
Short Reading
(Luke 9:23 — Douay-Rheims)
“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
Benedictus
Antiphon: Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
Canticle of Zachary (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 a 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…
Intercessions
Let us praise Christ who gave himself for us, and let us call upon him:
Lord, lead us in the way of the Cross.
Christ our Savior, you call us to follow you—
give us courage to carry the daily cross of fidelity and duty.
Christ our King, you redeemed the world by suffering—
teach us to see even our trials as instruments of grace.
Christ our Teacher, you reveal the truth through sacrifice—
help us resist the comfortable lies of our age.
Christ our Shepherd, guide your Church today—
protect families, strengthen priests, and guard the faith of your people.
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 those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Concluding Prayer
O God, who hast called us to follow thy Son in the way of the Cross:
grant that we may deny ourselves, take up our daily duties with courage, and walk faithfully in the path of Christ;
that through perseverance we may share in the joy of his Resurrection.
Through the same Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Paradox of the Day
The man who saves his life loses it; the man who spends his life finds it again.
A Word from G. K. Chesterton
“Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”
Reflection
Modern men are fond of saying that Christianity is too hard for ordinary life. Yet this complaint is strangely like the complaint of a soldier who says that battle is too dangerous for war.
Christ does not hide the cost of discipleship. Indeed, He announces it almost with cheerful frankness: “Take up thy cross daily.” Not once, but daily. Not in some grand heroic moment, but in the dull heroism of ordinary hours.
The curious thing about the Cross is that it is both a burden and a key. It is heavy to carry, yet it unlocks a door that cannot otherwise be opened. The man who refuses the Cross often imagines he is choosing freedom; but in reality he is choosing the prison of his own comfort. For comfort grows smaller the longer one lives inside it.
But the man who takes up the Cross discovers a strange enlargement of life. His troubles become adventures. His duties become missions. His sacrifices become stories.
This is because the Cross is not merely an instrument of suffering; it is the shape of love. And love, when it stretches its arms wide enough, inevitably takes the form of a cross.
The saints did not seek suffering for its own sake. They simply loved God and their neighbor so fiercely that suffering became unavoidable.
And that is the great secret of Christian paradox:
the road that appears hardest is the one that leads most surely home.
Chesterton Radio
Keeping the Faith — One Story, One Prayer, One Paradox at a Time.