This is the Liturgy of the Hours for November 24. Your local date is .
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Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. IV:
Ordinary: 615
Psalter: Saturday, Week II, 922
Common of Doctors of the Church: 1777 (verse)
Proper of Seasons: 213 (first reading)
Proper of Saints: 1365 (second reading, responsory, concluding prayer)
Christian Prayer:
Does not contain Office of Readings.
Office of Readings for Saturday in Ordinary Time, the Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor
God, come to my assistance.
— Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
— as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Alleluia.
HYMN
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.
Beneath the shadow of Your throne
Your saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is your arm alone,
And our defense is sure.
Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting you are God,
To endless years the same.
A thousand ages in your sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.
Time, like an ever rolling stream,
Bears all our lives away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be now our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.
𝄞 | "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" by Melinda Kirigin-Voss, Vince Clark • Title: O God, Our Help in Ages Past; Text: Based on Psalm 90; Isaac Watts, 1674-1748, Psalms of David..., 1719, alt.; Tune: ST. ANNE, CM; later form of melody (rhythm adapted), attr. to William Croft, 1678-1727, A Supplement to the New Version of Psalms, 1708; Artist: Melinda Kirigin-Voss, Vince Clark; Copyright 2016 Surgeworks Inc. • Albums that contain this Hymn: Divine Office |
PSALMODY
Ant. 1 None but the Lord has done such marvels; his love endures for ever.
Psalm 136
Paschal hymn
We praise God by recalling his marvelous deeds (Cassiodorus).
I
O give thanks to the Lord for he is good,
for his love endures for ever
Give thanks to the God of gods
for his love endures for ever
Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his love endures for ever;
who alone has wrought marvelous works,
for his love endures for ever;
whose wisdom it was made the skies,
for his love endures for ever;
who fixed the earth firmly on the seas,
for his love endures for ever.
It was he who made the great lights,
for his love endures for ever;
the sun to rule in the day,
for his love endures for ever;
the moon and stars in the night,
for his love endures for ever.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
— as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Ant. None but the Lord has done such marvels; his love endures for ever.
Ant. 2 He brought Israel out of Egypt with powerful hand and arm outstretched.
II
The first-born of the Egyptians he smote,
for his love endures for ever
He brought Israel out from the midst,
for his love endures for ever;
arm outstretched, with power in his hand,
for his love endures for ever.
He divided the Red Sea in two,
for his love endures for ever;
he made Israel pass through the midst,
for his love endures for ever;
he flung Pharaoh and his force in the sea,
for his love endures for ever.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
— as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Ant. He brought Israel out of Egypt with powerful hand and arm outstretched.
Ant. 3 Give praise to the God of heaven; he has ransomed us from our enemies.
III
Through the desert his people he led,
for his love endures for ever
Nations in their greatness he struck,
for his love endures for ever
Kings in their splendor he slew,
for his love endures for ever.
Sihon, king of the Amorites,
for his love endures for ever;
and Og, the king of Bashan,
for his love endures for ever.
He let Israel inherit their land,
for his love endures for ever
On his servant their land he bestowed,
for his love endures for ever
He remembered us in our distress,
for his love endures for ever.
And he snatched us away from our foes,
for his love endures for ever
He gives food to all living things,
for his love endures for ever
To the God of heaven give thanks,
for his love endures for ever.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
— as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Psalm-prayer
God, our Creator, how wonderfully you made man. You transformed dust into your own image and gave it a share in your own nature; yet you are more wonderful in pardoning the one who had rebelled against you. Grant that where sin has abounded, grace may more abound, so that we can become holier through forgiveness and be more grateful to you.
Ant. Give praise to the God of heaven; he has ransomed us from our enemies.
Sacred Silence (indicated by a bell) – a moment to reflect and receive in our hearts the full resonance of the voice of the Holy Spirit and to unite our personal prayer more closely with the word of God and public voice of the Church.
You will hear the word from my mouth.
— You will tell others what I have said.
READINGS
First reading
From the book of the prophet Jeremiah
31:15-22, 27-34
A foretelling of salvation and the new covenant
Thus says the Lord:
In Ramah is heard the sound of moaning,
of bitter weeping!
Rachel mourns her children,
she refuses to be consoled
because her children are no more.
Thus says the Lord:
Cease your cries of mourning,
wipe the tears from your eyes.
The sorrow you have shown shall have its reward,
says the Lord,
they shall return from the enemy’s land.
There is hope for your future, says the Lord;
your sons shall return to their own borders.
I hear, I hear Ephraim pleading:
You chastised me, and I am chastened;
I was an untamed calf.
If you allow me, I will return,
for you are the Lord, my God.
I turn in repentance;
I have come to myself, I strike my breast;
I blush with shame,
I bear the disgrace of my youth.
Is Ephraim not my favored son,
the child in whom I delight?
Often as I threaten him,
I still remember him with favor;
My heart stirs for him,
I must show him mercy, says the Lord.
Set up road markers,
put up guideposts;
Turn your attention to the highway,
the road by which you went.
Turn back, O virgin Israel,
turn back to these your cities.
How long will you continue to stray,
rebellious daughter?
The Lord has created a new thing upon the earth:
the woman must encompass the man with devotion.
The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will seed the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. As I once watched over them to uproot and pull down, to destroy, to ruin, and to harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord.
In those days they shall no longer say,
“The fathers ate unripe grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,”
but through his own fault only shall anyone die: the teeth of him who eats the unripe grapes shall be set on edge.
The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant and I had to show myself their master, says the Lord.
But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer will they have need to teach their friends and kinsmen how to know the Lord. All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the Lord, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.
RESPONSORY Psalm 51:12, 11
Create a clean heart in me, O God,
— and put a new and steadfast spirit within me.
Turn away your face from my sins, O God,
and blot out all my guilt.
— And put a new and steadfast spirit within me.
Second reading
From a homily on Ezekiel by Saint Gregory the Great, pope
For Christ’s love I do not spare myself in speaking of him
Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Note that a man whom the Lord sends forth as a preacher is called a watchman. A watchman always stands on a height so that he can see from afar what is coming. Anyone appointed to be a watchman for the people must stand on a height for all his life to help them by his foresight.
How hard it is for me to say this, for by these very words I denounce myself. I cannot preach with any competence, and yet insofar as I do succeed, still I myself do not live my life according to my own preaching.
I do not deny my responsibility; I recognize that I am slothful and negligent, but perhaps the acknowledgment of my fault will win me pardon from my just judge. Indeed when I was in the monastery I could curb my idle talk and usually be absorbed in my prayers. Since I assumed the burden of pastoral care, my mind can no longer be collected; it is concerned with so many matters.
I am forced to consider the affairs of the Church and of the monasteries. I must weigh the lives and acts of individuals. I am responsible for the concerns of our citizens. I must worry about the invasions of roving bands of barbarians, and beware of the wolves who lie in wait for my flock. I must become an administrator lest the religious go in want. I must put up with certain robbers without losing patience and at times I must deal with them in all charity.
With my mind divided and torn to pieces by so many problems, how can I meditate or preach wholeheartedly without neglecting the ministry of proclaiming the Gospel? Moreover, in my position I must often communicate with worldly men. At times I let my tongue run, for if I am always severe in my judgments, the worldly will avoid me, and I can never attack them as I would. As a result I often listen patiently to chatter. And because I too am weak, I find myself drawn little by little into idle conversation, and I begin to talk freely about matters which once I would have avoided. What once I found tedious I now enjoy.
So who am I to be a watchman, for I do not stand on the mountain of action but lie down in the valley of weakness? Truly the all-powerful Creator and Redeemer of mankind can give me in spite of my weaknesses a higher life and effective speech; because I love him, I do not spare myself in speaking of him.
RESPONSORY
He drew his moral and mystical teaching from the source of holy Scripture;
through him the life-giving streams of the Gospel flowed out to all nations.
— Though he is dead he still speaks to us today.
As a soaring eagle sees all on the earth below,
so he cares for both the great and small with his all-embracing charity.
— Though he is dead he still speaks to us today.
CONCLUDING PRAYER
O God,
who care for your people
with gentleness and rule them in love,
through the intercession of Pope Saint Gregory,
endow, we pray, with a spirit of wisdom
those to whom you have given authority to govern,
that the flourishing of a holy flock
may become the eternal joy of the shepherds.
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.
ACCLAMATION (at least in the communal celebration)
Let us praise the Lord.
— And give him thanks.