Office of Readings - Memorial for

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Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. IV:
Ordinary: 615
Psalter: Monday, Week IV, 1107
Common of Pastors: 1748
Proper of Seasons: 123
Proper of Saints: 1336

Office of Readings for Monday in Ordinary Time, the Memorial of Saint Pius X, Pope

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 How good is the God of Israel to the pure of heart!

Psalm 73
Why is it that the good have many troubles?
Blessed is the man who does not lose faith in me (Matthew 11:6).

I

How good God is to Israel,
to those who are pure of heart.
Yet my feet came close to stumbling,
my steps had almost slipped
for I was filled with envy of the proud
when I saw how the wicked prosper.

For them there are no pains;
their bodies are sound and sleek.
They have no share in men’s sorrows;
they are not stricken like others.

So they wear their pride like a necklace,
they clothe themselves with violence.
Their hearts overflow with malice,
their minds seethe with plots.

They scoff; they speak with malice;
from on high they plan oppression.
They have set their mouths in the heavens
and their tongues dictate to the earth.

So the people turn to follow them
and drink in all their words.
They say: “How can God know?
Does the Most High take any notice?”
Look at them, such are the wicked,
but untroubled, they grow in wealth.

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. How good is the God of Israel to the pure of heart!

Ant. 2 Their laughter will turn to weeping, their merriment to grief.

II

How useless to keep my heart pure
and wash my hands in innocence,
when I was stricken all day long,
suffered punishment day after day.

Then I said: “If I should speak like that,
I should abandon the faith of your people.”

I strove to fathom this problem,
too hard for my mind to understand,
until I pierced the mysteries of God
and understood what becomes of the wicked.

How slippery the paths on which you set them;
you make them slide to destruction.
How suddenly they come to their ruin,
wiped out, destroyed by terrors.
Like a dream one wakes from, O Lord,
when you wake you dismiss them as phantoms.

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. Their laughter will turn to weeping, their merriment to grief.

Ant. 3 Those who depart from you will perish; my joy is to remain with you, my God.

III

And so when my heart grew embittered
and when I was cut to the quick,
I was stupid and did not understand,
no better than a beast in your sight.

Yet I was always in your presence;
you were holding me by my right hand.
You will guide me by your counsel
and so you will lead me to glory.

What else have I in heaven but you?
Apart from you I want nothing on earth.
My body and my heart faint for joy;
God is my possession for ever.

All those who abandon you shall perish;
you will destroy all those who are faithless.
To be near God is my happiness.
I have made the Lord God my refuge.
I will tell of all your works
at the gates of the city of Zion.

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

It is good to be with you, Father; in you is fullness of life for your faithful people; in you all hope resides. May you lead us to everlasting happiness.

Ant. Those who depart from you will perish; my joy is to remain with you, my God.

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 Isaiah
3:1-15
The prophet rebukes Jerusalem

The Lord, the Lord of hosts,
shall take away from Jerusalem and from Judah
support and prop (all supplies of bread and water):
Hero and warrior,
judge and prophet, fortune-teller and elder,
The captain of fifty and the nobleman,
counselor, skilled magician, and expert charmer.
I will make striplings their princes;
the fickle shall govern them,

And the people shall oppress one another,
yes, every man his neighbor.
The child shall be bold toward the elder,
and the base toward the honorable.
When a man seizes his brother
in his father’s house, saying,
“You have clothes! Be our ruler,
and take in hand this ruin!”–

Then shall he answer in that day:
“I will not undertake to cure this,
when in my own house there is no bread or clothing!
You shall not make me ruler of the people.”
Jerusalem is crumbling, Judah is falling;
for their speech and their deeds are before the Lord,
a provocation in the sight of his majesty.

Their very look bears witness against them;
their sin like Sodom they vaunt,
They hide it not. Woe to them!
they deal out evil to themselves.
Happy the just, for it will be well with them,
the fruit of their works they will eat.
Woe to the wicked man! All goes ill,
with the work of his hands he will be repaid.
My people–a babe in arms will be their tyrant,
and women will rule them!
O my people, your leaders mislead,
they destroy the paths you should follow.

The Lord rises to accuse,
standing to try his people.
The Lord enters into judgment
with his people’s elders and princes:
It is you who have devoured the vineyard;
the loot wrested from the poor is in your houses.
What do you mean by crushing my people,
and grinding down the poor when they look to you?
says the Lord, the God of hosts.

RESPONSORY Isaiah 3:10, 11, 13

Happy is the just man; all goes well with him,
for he shall enjoy the fruit of his works.
— Woe to the wicked man; all goes ill with him;
he shall be repaid for the evil he has done.

The Lord rises from his judgment seat
and stands to judge his people.
— Woe to the wicked man; all goes ill with him;
he shall be repaid for the evil he has done.

Second reading
From the apostolic constitution Divino afflatu of Pope Saint Pius X.
The song of the Church

The collection of psalms found in Scripture, composed as it was under divine inspiration, has, from the very beginnings of the Church, shown a wonderful power of fostering devotion among Christians as they offer to God a continuous sacrifice of praise, the harvest of lips blessing his name. Following a custom already established in the Old Law, the psalms have played a conspicuous part in the sacred liturgy itself, and in the divine office. Thus was born what Basil calls the voice of the Church, that singing of psalms, which is the daughter of that hymn of praise (to use the words of our predecessor, Urban VIII) which goes up unceasingly before the throne of God and of the Lamb, and which teaches those especially charged with the duty of divine worship, as Athanasius says, the way to praise God, and the fitting words in which to bless him. Augustine expresses this well when he says: God praised himself so that man might give him fitting praise; because God chose to praise himself man found the way in which to bless God.

The psalms have also a wonderful power to awaken in our hearts the desire for every virtue. Athanasius says: Though all Scripture, both old and new, is divinely inspired and has its use in teaching, as we read in Scripture itself, yet the Book of Psalms, like a garden enclosing the fruits of all the other books, produces its fruits in song, and in the process of singing brings forth its own special fruits to take their place beside them. In the same place Athanasius rightly adds: The psalms seem to me to be like a mirror, in which the person using them can see himself, and the stirrings of his own heart; he can recite them against the background of his own emotions. Augustine says in his Confessions: How I wept when I heard your hymns and canticles, being deeply moved by the sweet singing of your Church. Those voices flowed into my ears, truth filtered into my heart, and from my heart surged waves of devotion. Tears ran down, and I was happy in my tears.

Indeed, who could fail to be moved by those many passages in the psalms which set forth so profoundly the infinite majesty of God, his omnipotence, his justice and goodness and clemency, too deep for words, and all the other infinite qualities of his that deserve our praise? Who could fail to be roused to the same emotions by the prayers of thanksgiving to God for blessings received, by the petitions, so humble and confident, for blessings still awaited, by the cries of a soul in sorrow for sin committed? Who would not be fired with love as he looks on the likeness of Christ, the redeemer, here so lovingly foretold? His was the voice Augustine heard in every psalm, the voice of praise, of suffering, of joyful expectation, of present distress.

RESPONSORY 1 Thessalonians 2:4, 3

God has found us worthy to be ministers of his Gospel, and so when we speak,
—we strive to please God and not men.

Our preaching does not spring from error, or impure motives, or a desire to deceive.
—We strive to please God and not men.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

O God,
who to safeguard the Catholic faith
and to restore all things in Christ,
filled Pope Saint Pius the Tenth with heavenly wisdom
and apostolic fortitude, graciously grant that,
following his teaching and example,
we may gain an eternal prize.
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.