Office of Readings

If you have already recited the Invitatory Psalm today, you should use the alternative opening.

O Lord, open my lips.

– And my mouth will proclaim your praise.

Antiphon: Let us exult in the Lord’s presence.

(repeat antiphon*)

Come, let us rejoice in the Lord,

let us acclaim God our salvation.

Let us come before him proclaiming our thanks,

let us acclaim him with songs.

(repeat antiphon*)

For the Lord is a great God,

a king above all gods.

For he holds the depths of the earth in his hands,

and the peaks of the mountains are his.

For the sea is his: he made it;

and his hands formed the dry land.

(repeat antiphon*)

Come, let us worship and bow down,

bend the knee before the Lord who made us;

for he himself is our God and we are his flock,

the sheep that follow his hand.

(repeat antiphon*)

If only, today, you would listen to his voice:

“Do not harden your hearts

as you did at Meribah,

on the day of Massah in the desert,

when your fathers tested me –

they put me to the test,

although they had seen my works.”

(repeat antiphon*)

“For forty years they wearied me,

that generation.

I said: their hearts are wandering,

they do not know my paths.

I swore in my anger:

they will never enter my place of rest.”

(repeat antiphon*)

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

(repeat antiphon*)

* If you are reciting this on your own, you can choose to say the antiphon once only at the start of the psalm and not repeat it.

A suitable hymn may be inserted at this point.

Psalm 43 (44)
In time of defeat
It is not their own strength that will give them victory, but your right hand and the light of your face.
Our own ears have heard, O God, and our fathers have proclaimed it to us, what you did in their days, the days of old: how with your own hand you swept aside the nations and put us in their place, struck them down to make room for us. It was not by their own swords that our fathers took over the land, it was not their own strength that gave them victory; but your hand and your strength, the light of your face, for you were pleased in them. You are my God and my king, who take care for the safety of Jacob. Through you we cast down your enemies; in your name we crushed those who rose against us. I will not put my hopes in my bow, my sword will not bring me to safety; for it was you who saved us from our afflictions, you who set confusion among those who hated us. We will glory in the Lord all the day, and proclaim your name for all ages. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
It is not their own strength that will give them victory, but your right hand and the light of your face.

Psalm 43 (44)
The Lord will not turn his face from you if you return to him.
But now, God, you have spurned us and confounded us, so that we must go into battle without you. You have put us to flight in the sight of our enemies, and those who hate us plunder us at will. You have handed us over like sheep sold for food, you have scattered us among the nations. You have sold your people for no money, not even profiting by the exchange. You have made us the laughing-stock of our neighbours, mocked and derided by those who surround us. The nations have made us a by-word, the peoples toss their heads in scorn. All the day I am ashamed, I blush with shame as they reproach me and revile me, my enemies and my persecutors. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
The Lord will not turn his face from you if you return to him.

Psalm 43 (44)
Rise up, Lord, do not reject us for ever.
All this happened to us, but not because we had forgotten you. We were not disloyal to your covenant; our hearts did not turn away; our steps did not wander from your path; and yet you brought us low, with horrors all about us: you overwhelmed us in the shadows of death. If we had forgotten the name of our God, if we had spread out our hands before an alien god — would God not have known? He knows what is hidden in our hearts. It is for your sake that we face death all the day, that we are reckoned as sheep to be slaughtered. Awake, Lord, why do you sleep? Rise up, do not always reject us. Why do you turn away your face? How can you forget our poverty and our tribulation? Our souls are crushed into the dust, our bodies dragged down to the earth. Rise up, Lord, and help us. In your mercy, redeem us. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Rise up, Lord, do not reject us for ever.

Lord, let your face shine on your servant;

– teach me your decrees.

Reading	Daniel 9:1-4,18-27 ©
It was the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus, who was of Median stock and ruled the kingdom of Chaldaea. In the first year of his reign I, Daniel, was perusing the scriptures, counting over the number of years – as revealed by the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah – that were to pass before the successive devastations of Jerusalem would come to an end, namely seventy years. I turned my face to the Lord God begging for time to pray and to plead with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. I pleaded with the Lord my God and made this confession: ‘Listen my God, listen to us; open your eyes and look on our plight and on the city that bears your name. We are not relying on our own good works but on your great mercy, to commend our humble plea to you. Listen, Lord! Lord, forgive! Hear, Lord, and act! For your own sake, my God, do not delay, because they bear your name, this is your city, this is your people.’ I was still speaking, still at prayer, confessing my own sins and the sins of my people Israel and placing my plea before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God, still speaking, still at prayer, when Gabriel, the being I had seen originally in a vision, flew suddenly down to me at the hour of the evening sacrifice. He said to me, ‘Daniel, you see me; I have come down to teach you how to understand. When your pleading began, a word was uttered, and I have come to tell you what it is. You are a man specially chosen. Grasp the meaning of the word, understand the vision: ‘Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city, for putting an end to transgression, for placing the seals on sin, for expiating crime, for introducing everlasting integrity, for setting the seal on vision and on prophecy, for anointing the Holy of Holies. ‘Know this, then, and understand: from the time this message went out: “Return and rebuild Jerusalem” to the coming of an anointed Prince, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, with squares and ramparts restored and rebuilt, but in a time of trouble. And after the sixty-two weeks an anointed one will be cut off – and... will not be for him – the city and the sanctuary will be destroyed by a prince who will come. His end will come in catastrophe and, until the end, there will be war and all the devastation decreed. He will make a firm covenant with many for the space of a week; and for the space of one half-week he will put a stop to sacrifice and oblation, and on the wing of the Temple will be the disastrous abomination until the end, until the doom assigned to the devastator.’

Reading

Daniel 9:1-4,18-27 ©

It was the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus, who was of Median stock and ruled the kingdom of Chaldaea. In the first year of his reign I, Daniel, was perusing the scriptures, counting over the number of years – as revealed by the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah – that were to pass before the successive devastations of Jerusalem would come to an end, namely seventy years. I turned my face to the Lord God begging for time to pray and to plead with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. I pleaded with the Lord my God and made this confession:

‘Listen my God, listen to us; open your eyes and look on our plight and on the city that bears your name. We are not relying on our own good works but on your great mercy, to commend our humble plea to you. Listen, Lord! Lord, forgive! Hear, Lord, and act! For your own sake, my God, do not delay, because they bear your name, this is your city, this is your people.’

I was still speaking, still at prayer, confessing my own sins and the sins of my people Israel and placing my plea before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God, still speaking, still at prayer, when Gabriel, the being I had seen originally in a vision, flew suddenly down to me at the hour of the evening sacrifice. He said to me, ‘Daniel, you see me; I have come down to teach you how to understand. When your pleading began, a word was uttered, and I have come to tell you what it is. You are a man specially chosen. Grasp the meaning of the word, understand the vision:

‘Seventy weeks are decreed

for your people and your holy city,

for putting an end to transgression,

for placing the seals on sin,

for expiating crime,

for introducing everlasting integrity,

for setting the seal on vision and on prophecy, for anointing the Holy of Holies.

‘Know this, then, and understand:

from the time this message went out:

“Return and rebuild Jerusalem”

to the coming of an anointed Prince, seven weeks

and sixty-two weeks,

with squares and ramparts restored and rebuilt,

but in a time of trouble.

And after the sixty-two weeks

an anointed one will be cut off – and... will not be for him –

the city and the sanctuary will be destroyed

by a prince who will come.

His end will come in catastrophe

and, until the end, there will be war

and all the devastation decreed.

He will make a firm covenant with many

for the space of a week;

and for the space of one half-week

he will put a stop to sacrifice and oblation,

and on the wing of the Temple will be the disastrous abomination

until the end, until the doom assigned to the devastator.’

Reading	Pope Pius XI's encyclical "Ecclesiam Dei"
He gave his life for the unity of the Church
In designing his Church God worked with such skill that in the fullness of time it would resemble a single great family embracing all men. It can be identified, as we know, by certain distinctive characteristics, notably its universality and unity. Christ the Lord passed on to his apostles the task he had received from the Father: I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. He wanted the apostles as a body to be intimately bound together, first by the inner tie of the same faith and love which flows into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, and, second, by the external tie of authority exercised by one apostle over the others. For this he assigned the primacy to Peter, the source and visible basis of their unity for all time. So that the unity and agreement among them would endure, God wisely stamped them, one might say, with the mark of holiness and martyrdom. Both these distinctions fell to Josaphat, archbishop of Polock of the Slavonic rite of the Eastern Church. He is rightly looked upon as the great glory and strength of the Eastern Rite Slavs. Few have brought them greater honour or contributed more to their spiritual welfare than Josaphat, their pastor and apostle, especially when he gave his life as a martyr for the unity of the Church. He felt, in fact, that God had inspired him to restore world-wide unity to the Church and he realised that his greatest chance of success lay in preserving the Slavonic rite and Saint Basil’s rule of monastic life within the one universal Church. Concerned mainly with seeing his own people reunited to the See of Peter, he sought out every available argument which would foster and maintain Church unity. His best arguments were drawn from liturgical books, sanctioned by the Fathers of the Church, which were in common use among Eastern Christians, including the dissidents. Thus thoroughly prepared, he set out to restore the unity of the Church. A forceful man of fine sensibilities, he met with such success that his opponents dubbed him “the thief of souls.”

Reading

Pope Pius XI's encyclical "Ecclesiam Dei"

He gave his life for the unity of the Church

In designing his Church God worked with such skill that in the fullness of time it would resemble a single great family embracing all men. It can be identified, as we know, by certain distinctive characteristics, notably its universality and unity.

Christ the Lord passed on to his apostles the task he had received from the Father: I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. He wanted the apostles as a body to be intimately bound together, first by the inner tie of the same faith and love which flows into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, and, second, by the external tie of authority exercised by one apostle over the others. For this he assigned the primacy to Peter, the source and visible basis of their unity for all time. So that the unity and agreement among them would endure, God wisely stamped them, one might say, with the mark of holiness and martyrdom.

Both these distinctions fell to Josaphat, archbishop of Polock of the Slavonic rite of the Eastern Church. He is rightly looked upon as the great glory and strength of the Eastern Rite Slavs. Few have brought them greater honour or contributed more to their spiritual welfare than Josaphat, their pastor and apostle, especially when he gave his life as a martyr for the unity of the Church. He felt, in fact, that God had inspired him to restore world-wide unity to the Church and he realised that his greatest chance of success lay in preserving the Slavonic rite and Saint Basil’s rule of monastic life within the one universal Church.

Concerned mainly with seeing his own people reunited to the See of Peter, he sought out every available argument which would foster and maintain Church unity. His best arguments were drawn from liturgical books, sanctioned by the Fathers of the Church, which were in common use among Eastern Christians, including the dissidents. Thus thoroughly prepared, he set out to restore the unity of the Church. A forceful man of fine sensibilities, he met with such success that his opponents dubbed him “the thief of souls.”

Concluding Prayer
Almighty and ever-living God, remove the obstacles that stand in our way, so that unimpeded in body and soul we may freely devote ourselves to your service. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

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