Office of Readings
Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. I:
Ordinary: Page 649
Propers: Page 326
Psalter: Friday, Week III, Page 1013
Office of Readings for Friday, December 18, 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
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.
Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.
Words: Robert Robinson, 1758; appeared in his A Collection of Hymns Used by the Church of Christ in Angel Alley, Bishopgate, 1759; Performed by: Choirs Of The Cathedral Of St. Philip, Atlanta/Craig Cansler, Conductor/David Fishburn, Organist
PSALMODY
Ant. 1 I am worn out with crying, with longing for my God.
Psalm 69:2-22; 30-37
I am consumed with zeal for your house
They offered him a mixture of wine and gall (Matthew 27:34).
I
Save me, O God,
for the waters have risen to my neck.
I have sunk into the mud of the deep
and there is no foothold.
I have entered the waters of the deep
and the waves overwhelm me.
I am wearied with all my crying,
my throat is parched.
My eyes are wasted away from looking for my God.
More numerous than the hairs on my head
are those who hate me without cause.
Those who attack me with lies
are too much for my strength.
How can I restore
what I have never stolen?
O God, you know my sinful folly;
my sins you can see.
Let those who hope in you not be put to shame
through me, Lord of hosts:
let not those who seek you
be dismayed through me, God of Israel.
It is for you that I suffer taunts,
that shame covers my face,
that I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my own mother’s sons.
I burn with zeal for your house
and taunts against you fall on me.
When I afflict my soul with fasting
they make it a taunt against me.
When I put on sackcloth in mourning
then they make me a byword,
the gossip of men at the gates,
the subject of drunkards’ songs.
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 worn out with crying, with longing for my God.
Ant. 2 I needed food and they gave me gall; I was parched with thirst and
they gave me vinegar.
II
This is my prayer to you,
my prayer for your favor.
In your great love, answer me,
O God, with your help that never fails:
rescue me from sinking in the mud;
save me from my foes.
Save me from the waters of the deep
lest the waves overwhelm me.
Do not let the deep engulf me
nor death close its mouth on me.
Lord, answer, for your love is kind;
in your compassion, turn towards me.
Do not hide your face from your servant;
answer quickly for I am in distress.
Come close to my soul and redeem me;
ransom me pressed by my foes.
You know how they taunt and deride me;
my oppressors are all before you.
Taunts have broken my heart;
I have reached the end of my strength.
I looked in vain for compassion,
for consolers; not one could I find.
For food they gave me poison;
in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
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 needed food and they gave me gall; I was parched with thirst and they gave me vinegar.
Ant. 3 Seek the Lord and you will live.
III
As for me in my poverty and pain
let your help, O God, lift me up.
I will praise God’s name with a song;
I will glorify him with thanksgiving,
a gift pleasing God more than oxen,
more than beasts prepared for sacrifice.
The poor when they see it will be glad
and God-seeking hearts will revive;
for the Lord listens to the needy
and does not spurn his servants in their chains.
Let the heavens and the earth give him praise,
the sea and all its living creatures.
For God will bring help to Zion
and rebuild the cities of Judah
and men shall dwell there in possession.
The sons of his servants shall inherit it;
those who love his name shall dwell there.
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. Seek the Lord and you will live.
Verse
Lift up your heads and see.
– Your redemption is now at hand.
First reading
From the book of the prophet Isaiah
46:1-13
The Lord opposes the idols of Babylon
Bel bows down, Nebo stoops, their idols are upon beasts and cattle;
They must be borne up on shoulders, carried as burdens by the weary.
They stoop and bow down together; unable to save those who bear them, they too go into captivity.
Hear me, O house of Jacob, all who remain of the house of Israel,
My burden since your birth, whom I have carried from your infancy.
Even to your old age I am the same, even when your hair is gray I will bear you;
It is I who have done this, I who will continue, and I who will carry you to safety.
Whom would you compare me with, as an equal, or match me against, as though we were alike?
There are those who pour out gold from a purse and weigh out silver on the scales;
Then they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god before which they fall down in worship.
They lift it to their shoulders to carry; when they set it in place again, it stays, and does not move from the spot.
Although they cry out to it, it cannot answer; it delivers no one from distress.
Remember this and be firm, bear it well in mind, you rebels; remember the former things, those long ago:
I am God, there is no other; I am God, there is none like me.
At the beginning I foretell the outcome; in advance, things not yet done.
I say that my plan shall stand, I accomplish my every purpose. I call from the east a bird of prey,
from a distant land, one to carry out my plan. Yes, I have spoken, I will accomplish it;
I have planned it, and I will do it.
Listen to me, you fainthearted, you who seem far from the victory of justice:
I am bringing on my justice, it is not far off, my salvation shall not tarry;
I will put salvation within Zion, and give to Israel my glory.
RESPONSORY
Isaiah 46:12, 13
Listen to me, you fainthearted, who are far from justice.
– I will grant salvation in Zion, and give my glory to Israel.
I am bringing my justice near at hand; it shall not be delayed, nor
shall my salvation tarry.
– I will grant salvation in Zion, and give my glory to Israel.
Second reading
From a letter to Diognetus
(Cap. 8, 5—9, 6: Funk 1, 325-327)
God has revealed his love through the Son
No man has ever seen God or known him, but God has revealed himself to us through faith, by which alone it is possible to see him. God, the Lord and maker of all things, who created the world and set it in order, not only loved man but was also patient with him. So he has always been, and is, and will be: kind, good, free from anger, truthful; indeed, he and he alone is good.
He devised a plan, a great and wonderful plan, and shared it only with his Son. As long as he preserved this secrecy and kept his own wise counsel he seemed to be neglecting us, to have no concern for us. But when through his beloved Son he revealed and made public what he had prepared from the very beginning, he gave us all at once gifts such as we could never have dreamt of, even sight and knowledge of himself.
When God had made all his plans in consultation with his Son, he waited until a later time, allowing us to follow our own whim, to be swept along by unruly passions, to be led astray by pleasure and desire. Not that he was pleased by our sins: he only tolerated them. Not that he approved of that time of sin: he was planning this era of holiness. When we had been shown to be undeserving of life, his goodness was to make us worthy of it. When we had made it clear that we could not enter God’s kingdom by our own power, we were to be enabled to do so by the power of God.
When our wickedness had reached its culmination, it became clear that retribution was at hand in the shape of suffering and death. The time came then for God to make known his kindness and power (how immeasurable is God’s generosity and love!). He did not show hatred for us or reject us or take vengeance; instead, he was patient with us, bore with us, and in compassion took our sins upon himself; he gave his own Son as the price of our redemption, the holy one to redeem the wicked, the sinless one to redeem sinners, the just one to redeem the unjust, the incorruptible one to redeem the corruptible, the immortal one to redeem mortals. For what else could have covered our sins but his sinlessness? Where else could we—wicked and sinful as we were—have found the means of holiness except in the Son of God alone?
How wonderful a transformation, how mysterious a design, how inconceivable a blessing! The wickedness of the many is covered up in the holy One, and the holiness of One sanctifies many sinners.
RESPONSORY
Acts 4:12; Isaiah 9:6
There is no salvation in any other person or place;
– nor is there any other name under heaven given to men, by which we should be saved.
His name shall be Wonder-counselor, God of strength, Father of future ages, Prince of peace.
– Nor is there any other name under heaven given to men, by which we should be saved.
CONCLUDING PRAYER
Let us pray.
All-powerful God, renew us by the coming feast of your Son and free us from our slavery to sin.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.
Acclamation
Let us praise the Lord.
–And give him thanks.
