“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
✠ Invitatory
℣ Lord, open thou my lips.
℟ And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
Antiphon:
Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
✠ Psalmody
Psalm 142
Cause me to hear thy mercy in the morning: for in thee have I hoped.
Hear, O Lord, my prayer: give ear to my supplication in thy truth: hear me in thy justice.
And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight no man living shall be justified.
For the enemy hath persecuted my soul: he hath brought down my life to the earth.
He hath made me to dwell in darkness as those that have been dead of old:
And my spirit is in anguish within me: my heart within me is troubled.
I remembered the days of old, I meditated on all thy works: I meditated upon the works of thy hands.
I stretched forth my hands to thee: my soul is as earth without water unto thee.
Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit hath fainted away. Turn not away thy face from me; lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.
Cause me to hear thy mercy in the morning; for in thee have I hoped.
Make the way known to me, wherein I should walk: for I have lifted up my soul to thee.
Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord, to thee have I fled:
Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God.
Thy good spirit shall lead me into the right land:
For thy name’s sake, O Lord, thou wilt quicken me in thy justice: thou wilt bring my soul out of trouble.
Glory be…
Canticle — Isaiah 66:10–14
Behold, I will bring upon her peace as it were a river.
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 peace as it were a river…
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.
Glory be…
Psalm 146
Praise ye the Lord, because psalm is good: to our God be joyful and comely praise.
The Lord buildeth up Jerusalem: he will gather together the dispersed of Israel.
Who healeth the broken of heart, and bindeth up their bruises.
Who telleth the number of the stars: and calleth them all by their names.
Great is our Lord, and great is his power: and of his wisdom there is no number.
The Lord lifteth up the meek, and bringeth the wicked down even to the ground.
Glory be…
✠ Short Reading
1 Kings 8:51–53
For they are thy people, and thy inheritance, whom thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron.
That thy eyes may be open to the supplication of thy servant, and to the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken to them in all things for which they shall call upon thee.
For thou didst separate them to thyself for an inheritance, from all the people of the earth, as thou didst speak by Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God.
✠ Gospel Canticle
Antiphon
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
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…
✠ Concluding Prayer
O Lord, begin in us what is good; finish what thou hast begun; and let every work of ours start from thy grace and end in thy peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
✠ Paradox of the Day
The Cross is the only loss that pays dividends in life.
✠ G.K. Chesterton Quote
“Man is more himself, more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing and grief superficial.”
✠ Reflection
God begins Lent with a strange business proposition: Choose life. And then, lest we mistake it for a slogan suitable for embroidery, Christ adds the fine print: Take up thy cross daily.
The modern imagination thinks life is what we preserve from inconvenience. The Gospel insists life is what we spend. The only way to keep it is to give it; the only way to secure it is to surrender it.
And yet the Cross is not theatrical. It is daily. It is the choice to forgive when resentment feels easier. It is the quiet refusal of vanity. It is the small obedience when no one applauds. It is prayer when the soul feels like earth without water.
Lent, therefore, is not a season of dramatic misery. It is construction work. Jerusalem being rebuilt stone by stone. The bones flourishing like an herb. The heart slowly learning that joy is not the denial of suffering but its redemption.
Choose life today.
Choose the Cross.
Chesterton Radio
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