Office of Readings
Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. I:
Ordinary: Page 649
Propers: Page 318
Psalter: Thusday, Week III, Page 994
Office of Readings for Thursday, December 17, in the Season of Advent
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
Adam Lay Ybounden relates the events of Genesis, Chapter 3, namely the Fall of Man following Adam’s temptation by Eve and the serpent. The third verse suggests the subsequent redemption of man by the birth of Jesus by Mary. This “fortunate fall” is called felix culpa.
Adam lay ybounden,
Bounden in a bond;
Four thousand winter,
Thought he not too long.
And all was for an apple,
An apple that he took.
As clerkes finden,
Written in their book.
Ne had the apple taken been,
The apple taken been,
Ne had never our ladie,
Abeen heav’ne queen.
Blessed be the time
That apple taken was,
Therefore we moun singen.
Deo gracias!
Text: 15th Century macaronic English text of unknown authorship; Source: Sloane Manuscript 2593; Performed by: Gloriae Dei Cantores
PSALMODY
Ant. 1 Look on us, Lord, and see how we are despised.
Psalm 89:39-53
Lament for the fall of David’s dynasty
He has raised up for us a mighty Savior born of the house of David his servant (Luke 1:69).
IV
And yet you have rejected and spurned
and are angry with the one you have anointed.
You have broken your covenant with your servant
and dishonored his crown in the dust.
You have broken down all his walls
and reduced his fortresses to ruins.
He is despoiled by all who pass by:
he has become the taunt of his neighbors.
You have exalted the right hand of his foes;
you have made all his enemies rejoice.
You have made his sword give way,
you have not upheld him in battle.
You have brought his glory to an end;
you have hurled his throne to the ground.
You have cut short the years of his youth;
you have heaped disgrace upon him.
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. Look on us, Lord, and see how we are despised.
Ant. 2 I am the root and stock of David; I am the morning star.
V
How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself for ever?
How long will your anger burn like a fire?
Remember, Lord, the shortness of my life
and how frail you have made the sons of men.
What man can live and never see death?
Who can save himself from the grasp of the grave?
Where are your mercies of the past, O Lord,
which you have sworn in your faithfulness to David?
Remember, Lord, how your servant is taunted,
how I have to bear all the insults of the peoples.
Thus your enemies taunt me, O Lord,
mocking your anointed at every step.
Blessed be the Lord for ever.
Amen, amen!
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. I am the root and stock of David; I am the morning star.
Ant. 3 Our years wither away like grass, but you, Lord God, are eternal.
Psalm 90
May we live in the radiance of God
There is no time with God: a thousand years, a single day: it is all one (2 Peter 3:8).
O Lord, you have been our refuge
from one generation to the next.
Before the mountains were born
or the earth or the world brought forth,
you are God, without beginning or end.
You turn men back into dust
and say: “Go back, sons of men.”
To your eyes a thousand years
are like yesterday, come and gone,
no more than a watch in the night.
You sweep men away like a dream,
like grass which springs up in the morning.
In the morning it springs up and flowers:
by evening it withers and fades.
So we are destroyed in your anger,
struck with terror in your fury.
Our guilt lies open before you;
our secrets in the light of your face.
All our days pass away in your anger.
Our life is over like a sigh. Our span is seventy years
or eighty for those who are strong.
And most of these are emptiness and pain.
They pass swiftly and we are gone.
Who understands the power of your anger
and fears the strength of your fury?
Make us know the shortness of our life
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Lord, relent! Is your anger for ever?
Show pity to your servants.
In the morning, fill us with your love;
we shall exult and rejoice all our days.
Give us joy to balance our affliction
for the years when we knew misfortune.
Show forth your work to your servants;
let your glory shine on their children.
Let the favor of the Lord be upon us:
give success to the work of our hands,
give success to the work of our hands.
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. Our years wither away like grass, but you, Lord God, are eternal.
Verse
The Lord proclaims his word to Jacob.
– His laws and decrees to Israel.
Readings
First reading
From the book of the prophet Isaiah 45:1-13
The salvation of Israel through Cyrus
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, Cyrus,
whose right hand I grasp,
Subduing nations before him,
and making kings run in his service,
Opening doors before him
and leaving the gates unbarred:
I will go before you
and level the mountains;
Bronze doors I will shatter,
and iron bars I will snap.
I will give you treasures out of the darkness,
and riches that have been hidden away,
That you may know that I am the Lord,
the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.
For the sake of Jacob, my servant,
of Israel my chosen one,
I have called you by your name,
giving you a title, though you knew me not.
I am the Lord and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.
It is I who arm you, though you know me not,
so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun
men may know that there is none besides me.
I am the Lord, there is no other;
I form the light, and create the darkness,
I make well-being and create woe;
I, the Lord, do all these things.
Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above,
like gentle rain let the skies drop it down.
Let the earth open and salvation bud forth;
let justice also spring up!
I, the Lord, have created this.
Woe to him who contends with his Maker;
a potsherd among potsherds of the earth!
Dare the clay say to its modeler, “What are you doing?” or,
“What you are making has no hands”?
Woe to him who asks a father, “What are you begetting?”
or a woman, “What are you giving birth to?”
Thus says the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel, his maker:
You question me about my children,
or prescribe the work of my hands for me!
It was I who made the earth
and created mankind upon it;
It was my hands that stretched out the heavens;
I gave the order to all their host.
It was I who stirred up one for the triumph of justice;
all his ways I make level.
He shall rebuild my city
and let my exiles go free
Without price or ransom,
says the Lord of hosts.
Responsory
Isaiah 45:8; see 16:1
Let the heavens drop down gentle showers, let the clouds rain down the Just One,
–and let the earth bring forth a Savior.
Lord, send the Lamb, the ruler of the earth, from the Rock in the desert to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.
–and let the earth bring forth a Savior.
Second reading
From a letter by Saint Leo the Great, pope
(Ep. 31, 2-3: PL 54, 791-793)
The mystery of our reconciliation with God
To speak of our Lord, the son of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as true and perfect man is of no value to us if we do not believe that he is descended from the line of ancestors set out in the Gospel. Matthew’s gospel begins by setting out the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham, and then traces his human descent by bringing his ancestral line down to his mother’s husband, Joseph. On the other hand, Luke traces his parentage backward step by step to the actual father of mankind, to show that both the first and the last Adam share the same nature.
No doubt the Son of God in his omnipotence could have taught and sanctified men by appearing to them in a semblance of human form as he did to the patriarchs and prophets, when for instance he engaged in a wrestling contest or entered into conversation with them, or when he accepted their hospitality and even ate the food they set before him. But these appearances were only types, signs that mysteriously foretold the coming of one who would take a true human nature from the stock of the patriarchs who had gone before him. No mere figure, then, fulfilled the mystery of our reconciliation with God, ordained from all eternity.
The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon the Virgin nor had the power of the Most High overshadowed her, so that within her spotless womb Wisdom might build itself a house and the Word become flesh. The divine nature and the nature of a servant were to be united in one person so that the Creator of time might be born in time, and he through whom all things were made might be brought forth in their midst.
For unless the new man, by being made in the likeness of sinful humanity, had taken on himself the nature of our first parents, unless he had stooped to be one in substance with his mother while sharing the Father’s substance and, being alone free from sin, united our nature to his, the whole human race would still be held captive under the dominion of Satan. The Conqueror’s victory would have profited us nothing if the battle had been fought outside our human condition. But through this wonderful blending the mystery of new birth shone upon us, so that through the same Spirit by whom Christ was conceived and brought forth we too might be born again in a spiritual birth; and in consequence the evangelist declares the faithful to have been born not of blood, nor of the desire of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Responsory
See Isaiah 11:10; Luke 1:32
Behold the root of Jesse will come down to save the people, the nations will entreat him;
–and his name will be held in reverence.
The Lord God will give him the throne of David, his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob for ever.
–and his name will be held in reverence.
Concluding Prayer
Father,
creator and redeemer of mankind,
you decreed, and your Word became man,
born of the Virgin Mary.
May we come to share the divinity of Christ,
who humbled himself to share our human nature,
for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
–Amen.
ACCLAMATION (only added when praying in community)
Let us praise the Lord.
– And give him thanks.
