Morning Prayer for

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:17 — 11.5MB)

For those who celebrate the Ascension of Our Lord on Sunday, please follow this link to the Morning Prayer for Saturday in Week 6 of Easter

Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. II:
Ordinary: 1049
Proper of Seasons: 950
Psalter: Saturday, Week II, 1345

Christian Prayer:
Ordinary: 689
Proper of Seasons: 574
Psalter: Saturday, Week II, 845

Morning Prayer for Saturday in Week 6 of Easter after Ascension

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 You have filled me with gladness, Lord; I will sing for joy at the works of your hands, alleluia.

Psalm 92
Praise of God the Creator
Sing in praise of Christ’s redeeming work (Saint Athanasius)

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to make music to your name, O Most High,
to proclaim your love in the morning
and your truth in the watches of the night,
on the ten-stringed lyre and the lute,
with the murmuring sound of the harp.

Your deeds, O Lord, have made me glad;
for the work of your hands I shout with joy.
O Lord, how great are your works!
How deep are your designs!
The foolish man cannot know this
and the fool cannot understand.

Though the wicked spring up like grass
and all who do evil thrive,
they are doomed to be eternally destroyed.
But you, Lord, are eternally on high.
See how your enemies perish;
all doers of evil are scattered.

To me you give the wild ox’s strength;
you anoint me with the purest oil.
My eyes looked in triumph on my foes;
my ears heard gladly of their fall.
The just will flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a Lebanon cedar.

Planted in the house of the Lord
they will flourish in the courts of our God,
still bearing fruit when they are old,
still full of sap, still green,
to proclaim that the Lord is just.
In him, my rock, there is no wrong.

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

Take our shame away from us, Lord, and make us rejoice in your saving works. May all who have been chosen by your Son always abound in works of faith, hope, and love in your service.

Ant. You have filled me with gladness, Lord; I will sing for joy at the works of your hands, alleluia.

Ant.2 It is I who bring death and I who give life; I inflict injury and I bring healing, alleluia.

Canticle – Deuteronomy 32:1-12
God’s kindness to his people
How often have I longed to gather your children as a hen gathers her brood under her wing. (Matthew 23:37)

Give ear, O heavens, while I speak;
let the earth hearken to the words of my mouth!
May my instruction soak in like the rain,
and my discourse permeate like the dew,
Like a downpour upon the grass,
like a shower upon the crops.

For I will sing the Lord’s renown.
Oh, proclaim the greatness of our God!
The Rock – how faultless are his deeds,
how right all his ways!
A faithful God, without deceit,
how just and upright he is!

Yet basely has he been treated by his degenerate children,
a perverse and crooked race!
Is the Lord to be thus repaid by you,
O stupid and foolish people?
Is he not your father who created you?
Has he not made you and established you?

Think back on the days of old,
reflect on the years of age upon age.
Ask your father and he will inform you,
ask your elders and they will tell you:

When the Most High assigned the nations their heritage,
when he parceled out the descendants of Adam,
He set up the boundaries of the peoples
after the number of the sons of God;
While the Lord’s own portion was Jacob,
His hereditary share was Israel.

He found them in a wilderness,
a wasteland of howling desert.
He shielded them and cared for them,
guarding them as the apple of his eye.

As an eagle incites its nestlings forth
by hovering over its brood,
So he spread his wings to receive them
and bore them up on his pinions.
The Lord alone was their leader,
no strange god was with him.

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. It is I who bring death and I who give life; I inflict injury and I bring healing, alleluia.

Ant. 3 You have crowned your Anointed One with glory and honor, alleluia.

Psalm 8
Praise for God’s loving compassion
I affirm that… the Gentile peoples are to praise God because of his mercy (Romans 15:8-9)

How great is your name, O Lord our God,
through all the earth!

Your majesty is praised above the heavens;
on the lips of children and of babes
you have found praise to foil your enemy,
to silence the foe and the rebel.

When I see the heavens, the work of your hands,
the moon and the stars which you arranged,
what is man that you should keep him in mind,
mortal man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him little less than a god;
with glory and honor you crowned him,
gave him power over the works of your hands,
put all things under his feet.

All of them, sheep and cattle,
yes, even the savage beasts,
birds of the air, and fish
that make their way through the waters.

How great is your name, O Lord our God
through all the earth!

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

Almighty Lord, how wonderful is your name. You have made every creature subject to you; make us worthy to give you service.

Ant. You have crowned your Anointed One with glory and honor, alleluia.

READING Romans 14:7-9

None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his own master. While we live we are responsible to the Lord, and when we die we die as his servants. Both in life and in death we are the Lord’s. That is why Christ died and came to life again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

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.

RESPONSORY

The Lord is risen from the tomb, alleluia, alleluia.
— The Lord is risen from the tomb, alleluia, alleluia.

He hung upon the cross for us,
— alleluia, alleluia.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
— The Lord is risen from the tomb, alleluia, alleluia.

CANTICLE OF ZECHARIAH

Ant. I promise that the Father will give you anything you ask for in my name, alleluia.

Luke 1:68 – 79
The Messiah and his forerunner

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
he has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior,
born of the house of his servant David.

Through his holy prophets he promised of old
that he would save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant.

This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
free to worship him without fear,
holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
to give his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.

In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

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 promise that the Father will give you anything you ask for in my name, alleluia.

INTERCESSIONS

Let us praise the Lord Jesus, anointed by the Holy Spirit, and pray:
You are seated at the right hand of the Father; make intercession for us.

Christ our Lord, look with favor on all who are called by your name,
— and gather them in unity by the power of the Holy Spirit.
You are seated at the right hand of the Father; make intercession for us.

Give light to those who suffer for your sake,
— that they may know what to say when faced with their persecutors.
You are seated at the right hand of the Father; make intercession for us.

You are the true vine; may all acknowledge you,
— and become your branches, bearing fruit in the Spirit.
You are seated at the right hand of the Father; make intercession for us.

King of all the world, you ascended to heaven in triumph,
— rule over all peoples.
You are seated at the right hand of the Father; make intercession for us.

May those who in baptism were made one with you in rising again,
— pass with you from death to life.
You are seated at the right hand of the Father; make intercession for us.

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

Concluding Prayer

O God,
whose Son, at his Ascension to the heavens,
was pleased to promise the Holy Spirit to the Apostles,
grant, we pray, that, just as they received
manifold gifts of heavenly teaching,
so on us, too, you may bestow spiritual gifts.
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.

DISMISSAL

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life.
— Amen.