Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. I:
Ordinary: 649
Proper of Seasons: 175
Psalter: Thursday, Week I, 749

Christian Prayer:
Does not contain Office of Readings.

Office of Readings for Thursday of the First 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 The word of the Lord is a strong shield for all who put their trust in him.

Psalm 18:31-15
Hymn of thanksgiving
If God is on our side who can be against us? (Romans 8:31).

IV

As for God, his ways are perfect;
the word of the Lord, purest gold.
He indeed is the shield
of all who make him their refuge.

For who is God but the Lord?
Who is a rock but our God?
the God who girds me with strength
and makes the path safe before me.

My feet you made swift as the deer’s;
you have made me stand firm on the heights.
You have trained my hands for battle
and my arms to bend the heavy bow.

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 word of the Lord is a strong shield for all who put their trust in him.

Ant. 2 Your strong right hand has upheld me, Lord.

V

You gave me your saving shield;
you upheld me, trained me with care.
You gave me freedom for my steps;
my feet have never slipped.

I pursued and overtook my foes,
never turning back till they were slain.
I smote them so they could not rise;
they fell beneath my feet.

You girded me with strength for battle;
you made my enemies fall beneath me,
you made my foes take flight;
those who hated me I destroyed.

They cried, but there was no one to save them;
they cried to the Lord, but in vain.
I crushed them fine as dust before the wind;
trod them down like dirt in the streets.

You saved me from the feuds of the people
and put me at the head of the nations.
People unknown to me served me:
when they heard of me they obeyed me.

Foreign nations came to me cringing:
foreign nations faded away.
They came trembling out of their strongholds.

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. Your strong right hand has upheld me, Lord.

Ant. 3 May the living God, my Savior, be praised for ever.

VI

Long life to the Lord, my rock!
Praised be the God who saves me,
the God who gives me redress
and subdues people under me.

You saved me from my furious foes.
You set me above my assailants.
You saved me from violent men,
so I will praise you, Lord, among the nations:
I will sing a psalm to your name.

He has given great victories to his king
and shown his love for his anointed,
for David and his sons for ever.

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

Lord God, our strength and salvation, put in us the flame of your love and make our love for you grow to a perfect love which reaches to our neighbor.

Ant. May the living God, my Savior, be praised for ever.

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.

Hear the word of the Lord, all you nations.
— Proclaim it to the ends of the earth.

READINGS

First reading
From the book of the prophet Isaiah 
16:1-5; 17:4-8
Zion, refuge of the Moabites. The conversion of Ephraim

Send them forth, hugging the earth like reptiles,
from Sela across the desert,
to the mount of daughter Zion.
Like flushed birds,
like startled nestlings,
Are the daughters of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon.

Offer counsel, take their part:
at high noon let your shadow be like the night,
To hide the outcasts,
to conceal the fugitives.
Let the outcasts of Moab live with you,
be their shelter from the destroyer.

When the struggle is ended, the ruin complete,
and they have done with trampling the land,
A throne shall be set up in mercy,
and on it shall sit in fidelity
[in David’s tent]
A judge upholding right
and prompt to do justice.

On that day
The glory of Jacob shall fade,
and his full body grow thin,
Like the reaper’s mere armful of stalks
when he gathers the standing grain;
Or as when one gleans the ears
in the Valley of Rephaim.
Only a scattering of grapes shall be left!
As when an olive tree has been beaten,
Two or three olives remain at the very top,
four or five on its fruitful branches,
says the Lord, the God of Israel.

On that day man shall look to his maker,
his eyes turned toward the Holy One of Israel.
He shall not look to the altars, his handiwork,
nor shall he regard what his fingers have made:
the sacred poles or the incense stands.

RESPONSORY Jeremiah 33:15, 16; Isaiah 16:5

I shall raise up an heir for David,
one who is just;
he will make fair judgment prevail on earth,
— and this is the name they will give him:
the Lord is our righteousness.

A throne of mercy will be set up;
there a true judge will sit,
one who seeks justice and is swift to do right.
— And this is the name they will give him:
the Lord is our righteousness.

Second reading
From a commentary on the Diatessaron by Saint Ephrem, deacon
Keep watch; he is to come again

To prevent his disciples from asking the time of his coming, Christ said: About that hour no one knows, neither the angels nor the Son. It is not for you to know times or moments. He has kept those things hidden so that we may keep watch, each of us thinking that he will come in our own day. If he had revealed the time of his coming, his coming would have lost its savor: it would no longer be an object of yearning for the nations and the age in which it will be revealed. He promised that he would come but did not say when he would come, and so all generations and ages await him eagerly.

Though the Lord has established the signs of his coming, the time of their fulfillment has not been plainly revealed. These signs have come and gone with a multiplicity of change; more than that, they are still present. His final coming is like his first. As holy men and prophets waited for him, thinking that he would reveal himself in their own day, so today each of the faithful longs to welcome him in his own day, because Christ has not made plain the day of his coming.

He has not made it plain for this reason especially, that no one may think that he whose power and dominion rule all numbers and times is ruled by fate and time. He described the signs of his coming; how could what he has himself decided be hidden from him? Therefore, he used these words to increase respect for the signs of his coming, so that from that day forward all generations and ages might think that he would come again in their own day.

Keep watch; when the body is asleep nature takes control of us, and what is done is not done by our will but by force, by the impulse of nature. When deep listlessness takes possession of the soul, for example, faint-heartedness or melancholy, the enemy overpowers it and makes it do what it does not will. The force of nature, the enemy of the soul, is in control.

When the Lord commanded us to be vigilant, he meant vigilance in both parts of man: in the body, against the tendency to sleep; in the soul, against lethargy and timidity. As Scripture says: Wake up, you just, and I have risen, and am still with you; and again, Do not lose heart. Therefore, having this ministry, we do not lose heart.

RESPONSORY Isaiah 55:3-4; Acts 28:28

I shall make with you an everlasting covenant,
I shall send the promise given in mercy to David.
— I have set him as a witness to the peoples,
as leader and teacher of all nations.

This saving act of God is for all nations,
and they will heed it.
— I have set him as a witness to the peoples,
as leader and teacher of all nations.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Stir up your power, O Lord,
and come to our help with mighty strength,
that what our sins impede
the grace of your mercy may hasten.
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.