Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. I:
Ordinary: 649
Proper of Seasons: 343
Psalter: Friday, Week III, 1012

Christian Prayer:
Does not contain Office of Readings.

Office of Readings for December 20, Friday in the 3rd Week 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.

PSALMODY

Ant. 1 I am worn out with crying, with longing for my God.

Psalm 69
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 not those who hope in you 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 and mourning
then they make me a byword,
the gossip of men at the gates,
the subject of drunkard’s 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 pray 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 me 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.

Psalm-prayer

God our Father, to show the way of salvation, you chose that the standard of the cross should go before us, and you fulfilled the ancient prophecies in Christ’s passover from death to life. Do not let us rouse your burning indignation by sin, but rather, through the contemplation of his wounds, make us burn with zeal for the honor of your Church and with grateful love for you.

Ant. Seek the Lord and you will live.

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.

A voice is heard, crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord.
— Make straight the path of our God.

READINGS

First reading
From the book of the prophet Isaiah
48:1-11
God alone is the Lord of the future

Hear this, O house of Jacob
called by the name Israel,
sprung from the stock of Judah,
You who swear by the name of the Lord
and invoke the God of Israel
without sincerity or justice,
Though you are named after the holy city
and rely on the God of Israel,
whose name is the Lord of hosts.

Things of the past I foretold long ago,
they went forth from my mouth,
I let you hear of them;
then suddenly I took action
and they came to be.
Because I know that you are stubborn
and that your neck is an iron sinew
and your forehead bronze,
I foretold them to you of old;
before they took place I let you hear of them,
That you might not say, “My idol did them,
my statue, my molten image commanded them.”
Now that you have heard, look at all this;
must you not admit it?

From now on I announce new things to you,
hidden events of which you knew not.
Now, not long ago, they are brought into being,
and beforetime you did not hear of them,
so that you cannot claim to have known them;
You neither heard nor knew,
they did not reach your ears beforehand.
Yes, I know you are utterly treacherous,
a rebel you were called from birth.

For the sake of my name I restrain my anger,
for the sake of my renown I hold it back from you,
lest I should destroy you.
See, I have refined you like silver,
tested you in the furnace of affliction.
For my sake, for my own sake, I do this;
why should I suffer profanation?
My glory I will not give to another.

RESPONSORY Isaiah 48:10, 11; 54:8

I have tried you in the furnace of distress.
For me, for my own sake, I do this, that I be not blasphemed.
— I will not give my glory to another.

In a moment of indignation I hid my face from you for a little while,
then suddenly I took action and they came to be;
but in my everlasting mercy I had compassion on you.
— I will not give my glory to another.

Second reading
From a homily In Praise of the Virgin Mother by Saint Bernard, abbot
The whole world awaits Mary’s reply

You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us.

The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life.

Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving Virgin, in their exile from Paradise. Abraham begs it, David begs it. All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you, as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death. This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet. It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the sons of Adam, the whole of your race.

Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord. Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.

Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident. This is no time for virginal simplicity to forget prudence. In this matter alone, O prudent Virgin, do not fear to be presumptuous. Though modest silence is pleasing, dutiful speech is now more necessary. Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virgin, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator. See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter. If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves. Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word.

RESPONSORY See Luke 1:31,42

Receive, O Virgin Mary, the word
which the Lord has made known to you by the message of the angel:
You will conceive and give birth to a son, both God and man,
— and you will be called blessed among women.

A virgin, you will indeed bear a son;
ever chaste and holy, you will be the mother of our Savior.
— And you will be called blessed among women.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

O God,
eternal majesty, whose ineffable Word
the immaculate Virgin received
through the message of an Angel,
and so became the dwelling-place of divinity,
filled with the light of the Holy Spirit,
grant, we pray, that by her example,
we may in humility hold fast to your will.
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.