Invitatory
V. O Lord, open thou my lips.
R. And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
Antiphon: Let us adore the Lord, for he is our God.
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.
Hymn (Week III Cycle)
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 and tongues from strife,
From anger’s din would shield our life;
From evil sights would turn our eyes,
And close our ears to vanities.
So we, when this new day is gone,
And night in turn is drawing on,
With conscience by the world unstained,
Shall praise his name for victory gained.
Psalmody
Antiphon I
The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Psalm 26 (27)
The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the protector of my life: of whom shall I be afraid?
Whilst the wicked draw near against me, to eat my flesh:
My enemies that trouble me, they themselves are weakened and have fallen.
If armies in camp should stand together against me, my heart shall not fear.
If a battle should rise up against me, in this will I be confident.
One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after;
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
That I may see the delight of the Lord, and may visit his temple.
For he hath hidden me in his tabernacle; in the day of evils, he hath protected me in the secret place of his tabernacle.
He hath exalted me upon a rock:
And now he hath lifted up my head above my enemies.
I have gone round, and have offered up in his tabernacle a sacrifice of jubilation:
I will sing, and recite a psalm to the Lord.
Hear, O Lord, my voice, with which I have cried to thee: have mercy on me and hear me.
My heart hath said to thee: My face hath sought thee: thy face, O Lord, will I still seek.
Turn not away thy face from me; decline not in thy wrath from thy servant.
Be thou my helper, forsake me not; do not thou despise me, O God my Saviour.
For my father and my mother have left me: but the Lord hath taken me up.
Set me, O Lord, a law in thy way, and guide me in the right path, because of my enemies.
Deliver me not over to the will of them that trouble me.
I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
Expect the Lord, do manfully, and let thy heart take courage, and wait thou for the Lord.
Antiphon II
Blessed be the Lord for ever.
Canticle — Tobit 13:1–10
Blessed be God that liveth for ever, and his kingdom endureth for all ages.
For he scourgeth, and he saveth: he leadeth down to hell, and bringeth up again: and there is none that can escape his hand.
Give glory to the Lord, you children of Israel, and praise him in the sight of the Gentiles:
Because he hath therefore scattered you among the Gentiles who know him not, that you may declare his wonderful works.
He will scourge you for your iniquities, and will have mercy again on you all.
He will gather you out of all nations, among whom you shall have been scattered.
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 of ages.
For he will rebuild his tabernacle in thee again with joy.
Antiphon III
Sing praise to our God.
Psalm 32 (33)
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye just: praise becometh the upright.
Give praise to the Lord on the harp; sing to him with the psaltery, the instrument of ten strings.
Sing to him a new canticle; sing well unto him with a loud noise.
For the word of the Lord is right, and all his works are done with faithfulness.
He loveth mercy and judgment; the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were established; and all the power of them by the spirit of his mouth.
He gathereth together the waters of the sea as in a vessel; he layeth up the depths in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world be in awe of him.
For he spoke, and they were made: he commanded, and they were created.
The Lord bringeth to nought the counsels of nations; and he rejecteth the devices of people.
But the counsel of the Lord standeth for ever.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.
Short Reading
James 4:7–8, 10
Be subject therefore to God, but resist the devil, and he will fly from you.
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
Be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Gospel Canticle — Benedictus
Antiphon: Serve the Lord in holiness and justice all your days.
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.
Intercessions
Let us call upon Christ, our strength and our salvation.
— Lord, steady us in humility.
— Guard us from the heavy burden of pride.
— Help us resist evil through fidelity, not bravado.
— Draw us nearer to you this day.
Concluding Prayer
O Lord our God, grant that we may serve thee in holiness and justice all our days; that humbly resisting evil and drawing near to thee, we may walk securely in thy light; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
✒ Paradox of the Day
The only way to rise is first to kneel.
“Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.”
— G.K. Chesterton
🌿 Chestertonian Meditation
Humility is the only ladder that begins by going down.
We are trained to believe that strength consists in standing tall and speaking loudly. We polish our self-confidence like armor and call it courage. Yet the Apostle proposes something far more audacious: “Be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.”
It is not weakness he recommends. It is gravity.
Pride must constantly defend its altitude. It trembles at insult and collapses at failure. The proud man is forever balancing himself on a narrow ledge of self-importance. But the man who kneels cannot fall very far.
There is a strange lightness in surrender. The saint does not despise himself; he simply refuses to enthrone himself. And once a man is no longer busy maintaining his own glory, he is free to receive God’s.
To resist evil is not to roar theatrically at it. It is to cling so closely to God that evil finds no surface to grip. Pride offers handles; humility offers none.
The world imagines that rising is an upward thrust of ambition. The Gospel reveals that it is a downward act of trust. And when a man kneels — not in despair, but in allegiance — he discovers that he has not descended into weakness.
He has stepped into strength.
📻 Chesterton Radio — Where old stories live, and the lamp is always lit.