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Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. III:
Ordinary: 651
Proper of Saints: 283
Psalter: Saturday, Week IV, 1250

Office of Readings for Saturday in Ordinary Time

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.

PSALMODY

Ant. 1 The Lord summons heaven and earth to witness his judgment on his people.

Psalm 50
Genuine love of God
I have come not to abolish the law but to bring it to perfection (see Matthew 5:17).

I

The God of gods, the Lord,
has spoken and summoned the earth,
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Out of Zion’s perfect beauty he shines.

Our God comes, he keeps silence no longer.

Before him fire devours,
around him tempest rages.
He calls on the heavens and the earth
to witness his judgment of his people.

“Summon before me my people
who made covenant with me by sacrifice.”
The heavens proclaim his justice,
for God himself is the judge.

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. The Lord summons heaven and earth to witness his judgment on his people.

Ant. 2 Come to me in your distress, and I will save you.

II

“Listen, my people, I will speak;
Israel, I will testify against you,
for I am God your God.
I accuse you, lay the charge before you.

I find no fault with your sacrifices,
your offerings are always before me.
I do not ask more bullocks from your farms,
nor goats from among your herds.

For I own all the beasts of the forest,
beasts in their thousands on my hills.
I know all the birds in the sky,
all that moves in the field belongs to me.

Were I hungry, I would not tell you,
for I own the world and all it holds.
Do you think I eat the flesh of bulls,
or drink the blood of goats?

Pay your sacrifice of thanksgiving to God
and render him your votive offerings.
Call on me in the day of distress.
I will free you and you shall honor 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.

Ant. Come to me in your distress, and I will save you.

Ant. 3 A sacrifice of praise will give me glory.

III

But God says to the wicked:

“But how can you recite my commandments
and take my covenant on your lips,
you who despise my law
and throw my words to the winds,

you who see a thief and go with him;
who throw in your lot with adulterers,
who unbridle your mouth for evil
and whose tongue is plotting crime,

you who sit and malign your brother
and slander your own mother’s son.
You do this, and should I keep silence?
Do you think that I am like you?

Mark this, you who never think of God,
lest I seize you and you cannot escape;
a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me
and I will show God’s salvation to the upright.”

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

Father, because Jesus, your servant, became obedient even unto death, his sacrifice was greater than all holocausts of old. Accept the sacrifice of praise we offer you through him and may we show the effects of it in our lives by striving to do your will until our whole life becomes adoration in Spirit and truth.

Ant. A sacrifice of praise will give me glory.

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.

We are always praying earnestly for you.
— That you may have a deep knowledge of God’s will.

READINGS

First reading
From the book of Job
13:13-14:6
Job appeals to God’s judgment

Job replied to his friends and said:
Be silent, let me alone! that I may speak
and give vent to my feelings.
I will carry my flesh between my teeth,
and take my life in my hand.
Slay me though he might, I will wait for him;
I will defend my conduct before him.
And this shall be my salvation,
that no impious man can come into his presence.

Pay careful heed to my speech,
and give my statement a hearing.
Behold, I have prepared my case,
I know that I am in the right.
If anyone can make a case against me,
then I shall be silent and die.

These things only do not use against me,
then from your presence I need not hide:
Withdraw your hand far from me,
and let not the terror of you frighten me.
Then call me, and I will respond;
or let me speak first, and answer me.

What are my faults and my sins?
My misdeeds and my sins make known to me!
Why do you hide your face
and consider me your enemy?
Will you harass a wind-driven leaf,
or pursue a withered straw?
For you draw up bitter indictments against me,
and punish in me the faults of my youth.
You put my feet in the stocks;
you watch all my paths
and trace out all my footsteps.

Man born of woman
is short-lived and full of trouble,
Like a flower that springs up and fades,
swift as a shadow that does not abide.
Upon such a one will you cast your eyes
so as to bring him into judgment before you,
Though he wears out like a leather bottle,
like a garment that the moth has consumed?
Can a man be found who is clean of defilement?
There is none, however short his days.
You know the number of his months;
you have fixed the limit which he cannot pass.
Look away from him and let him be,
while, like a hireling, he completes his day.

RESPONSORY See Job 13:20, 21; see Jeremiah 10:24

O Lord, do not hide your face from me; lift away from me the weight of your hand,
— and let not the fear of you terrify me.

O God, rebuke me with gentleness and not in anger, for your anger will reduce me to nothing.
— And let not the fear of you terrify me.

Second reading
From a sermon by Saint Zeno of Verona, bishop
Job was a type of Christ

Is Job a type of Christ? If I am right, he is, and the comparison will reveal the truth of my claim. But while Job was called a just man by God, God himself is the fountain of justice from whom all the saints drink. See what Scripture says: The sun of justice will arise for you. Job was called truthful, but the Lord is, as he says in the Gospel, the way, the truth and the life. And while Job was rich, the Lord is far richer, for the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it; the world and all who dwell in it. All rich men are his servants, and the whole world and all of nature as well.

But we may compare Job and Christ in many ways. As Job was tempted by the devil three times, so too Christ was tempted three times. The Lord set aside his riches out of love for us and chose poverty so that we might become rich, while Job lost all that he possessed. A violent wind killed Job’s sons, while the sons of God, the prophets, were killed by the Pharisees. Job became ulcerated and disfigured, while the Lord, by becoming man, took on the defilement of the sins committed by all mankind. The wife of Job tempted him to sin, much as the synagogue tried to force the Lord to yield to corrupt leadership. Thus he was insulted by the priests, the servants of his altar, as Job was insulted by his friends. And as Job sat on a dunghill of worms, so all the evil of the world is really a dunghill which became the Lord’s dwelling place, while men that abound in every sort of crime and base desire are really worms.

The restoration of health and riches to Job prefigures the resurrection, which gives health and eternal life to those who believe in Christ. Regaining lordship over all the world, Christ says: All things have been given to me by my Father. And just as Job fathered other sons, so too did Christ, for the apostles, the sons of the Lord, succeeded the prophets.

Job died happily and in peace, but there is no death for the Lord. He is praised for ever, just as he was before time began, and as he always will be as time continues and moves into eternity.

RESPONSORY Hebrews 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 6:4-5

Let us throw off every encumbrance and steadily run the race we have started,
— keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the source of our faith and its goal.

Let us prove ourselves by patient endurance of trials, in times of difficulty and in distress, and when we are flogged or imprisoned.
— Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the source of our faith and its goal.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Grant us,
O Lord, we pray,
that the course of our world
may be directed by your peaceful rule
and that your Church may rejoice,
untroubled in her devotion.
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 (only added when praying in community)

Let us praise the Lord.
— And give him thanks.