Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. II:
Ordinary: 651
Proper of Saints: 279
Psalter: Friday, Week IV, 1230

Office of Readings for Friday 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 My God, do not reject my cry for help, assailed as I am by the wicked.

Psalm 55:2-15, 17-24
Against a friend proved traitor
Jesus was seized with fear and distress (Mark 14:33).

I

O God, listen to my prayer,
do not hide from my pleading,
attend to me and reply;
with my cares, I cannot rest.

I tremble at the shouts of the foe,
at the cries of the wicked;
for they bring down evil upon me.
They assail me with fury.

My heart is stricken within me,
death’s terror is on me,
trembling and fear fall upon me
and horror overwhelms me.

O that I had wings like a dove
to fly away and be at rest.
So I would escape far away
and take refuge in the desert.

I would hasten to find a shelter
from the raging wind,
from the destructive storm, O Lord,
and from their plotting tongues.

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. My God, do not reject my cry for help, assailed as I am by the wicked.

Ant. 2 The Lord himself will free us from hostile and treacherous hands.

II

For I can see nothing but violence
and strife in the city.
Night and day they patrol
high on the city walls.

It is full of wickedness and evil;
it is full of sin.
Its streets are never free
from tyranny and deceit.

If this had been done by an enemy
I could bear his taunts.
If a rival had risen against me,
I could hide from him.

But it is you, my own companion,
my intimate friend!
How close was the friendship between us.
We walked together in harmony
in the house of God.

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 himself will free us from hostile and treacherous hands.

Ant. 3 Entrust your cares to the Lord; he will sustain you.

III

As for me, I will cry to God
and the Lord will save me.
Evening, morning and at noon
I will cry and lament.

He will deliver my soul in peace
in the attack against me:
for those who fight me are many,
but he hears my voice.

God will hear and will humble them,
the eternal judge:
for they will not amend their ways.
They have no fear of God.

The traitor has turned against his friends;
he has broken his word.
His speech is softer than butter,
but war is in his heart.
His words are smoother than oil,
but they are naked swords.

Entrust your cares to the Lord
and he will support you.
He will never allow
the just man to stumble.

But you, O God, will bring them down
to the pit of death.
Deceitful and bloodthirsty men
shall not live half their days.
O Lord, I will trust in you.

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 Jesus, you were rejected by your people, betrayed by the kiss of a friend, and deserted by your disciples. Give us the confidence that you had in the Father, and our salvation will be assured.

Ant. Entrust your cares to the Lord; he will sustain you.

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.

Children, listen to my words of wisdom.
— Pay attention to my counsels.

READINGS

First reading
From the book of Job
12:1-25
Job explains that divine omnipotence is beyond human understanding

Job replied and said:
No doubt you are the intelligent folk,
and with you wisdom shall die!
But I have intelligence as well as you;
for who does not know such things as these?
I have become the sport of my neighbors
“The one whom God answers when he calls upon him,
The just, the perfect man,” is a laughing-stock;
The undisturbed esteem my downfall a disgrace
such as awaits unsteady feet;
Yet the tents of robbers are prosperous,
and those who provoke God are secure.

But now ask the beasts to teach you,
and the birds of the air to tell you;
Or the reptiles on earth to instruct you,
and the fish of the sea to inform you.
Which of all these does not know
that the hand of God has done this?
In his hand is the soul of every living thing,
and the life breath of all mankind.

Does not the ear judge words
as the mouth tastes food?
So with old age is wisdom,
and with length of days understanding.
With him are wisdom and might;
his are counsel and understanding.
If he breaks a thing down, there is no rebuilding;
if he imprisons a man, there is no release.
He holds back the waters and there is drought;
he sends them forth and they overwhelm the land.

He loosens the bonds imposed by kings
and leaves but a waistcloth to bind the king’s own loins.
He breaks down the barriers of the streams
and lets their never-failing waters flow away.

With him are strength and prudence;
the misled and the misleaders are his.
He sends counselors away barefoot,
and of judges he makes fools.
He silences the trusted adviser,
and takes discretion from the aged.

The recesses of the darkness he discloses,
and brings the gloom forth to the light.
He makes nations great and he destroys them;
he spreads peoples abroad and he abandons them.
He takes understanding from the leaders of the land,
till they grope in the darkness without light;
he makes them stagger like drunken men.

RESPONSORY Job 12:13, 14; 23:13

With God is all wisdom and power; in him are counsel and understanding.
— When he destroys, there is no rebuilding; if he imprisons a man, no one can release him.

Once he has decided, no one can change his mind; whatever he determines, he does.
— When he destroys, there is no rebuilding; if he imprisons a man, no one can release him.

Second reading
From the Moral Reflections on Job by Saint Gregory the Great, pope
The interior witness

Whoever is mocked by his friend, as I am, shall call upon God, and he shall hear him. A weak-minded person is frequently diverted toward pursuing exterior happiness when the breath of popular favor accompanies his good actions. So he gives up his own personal choices, preferring to remain at the mercy of whatever he hears from others. Thus, he rejoices not so much to become but to be called blessed. Eager for praise, he gives up what he had begun to be; and so he is severed from God by the very means by which he appeared to be commendable in God.

But sometimes a soul firmly strives for righteousness and yet is beset by men’s ridicule. He does what is admirable but he gets only mockery. He might have gone out of himself because of man’s praise; he returns to himself when repelled by their abuse. Finding no resting-place without, he cleaves more intensely to God within. All his hope is fixed on his Creator, and amid all the ridicule and abuse he invokes his interior witness alone. One who is afflicted in this way grows closer to God the more he turns away from human popularity. He straightway pours himself out in prayer, and, pressured from without, he is refined with a more perfect purity to penetrate what is within.

In this context, the words apply: Whoever is mocked by his friend, as I am, shall call upon God, and he shall hear him. For while the wicked reproach the just, they show them whom they should look to as the witness of their actions. Thus afflicted, the soul strengthens itself by prayer; it is united within to one who listens from on high precisely because it is cut off externally from the praise of men. Again, we should note how appropriately the words are inserted, as I am. There are some people who are both oppressed by human mockery and are yet deprived of God’s favorable hearing. For when the mockery is done to a man’s own sin, it obviously does not produce the merit that is due to virtue.

The simplicity of the just man is laughed to scorn. It is the wisdom of this world to conceal the heart with stratagems, to veil one’s thoughts with words, to make what is false appear true and what is true appear false. On the other hand it is the wisdom of the just never to pretend anything for show, always to use words to express one’s thoughts, to love the truth as it is and to avoid what is false, to do what is right without reward and to be more willing to put up with evil than to perpetrate it, not to seek revenge for wrong, and to consider as gain any insult for truth’s sake. But this guilelessness is laughed to scorn, for the virtue of innocence is held as foolishness by the wise of this world. Anything that is done out of innocence, they doubtless consider to be stupidity, and whatever truth approves of, in practice is called folly by their earthly wisdom.

RESPONSORY Psalm 119:104-105; John 6:69

I hate the ways of falsehood.
— Your word is a lantern which guides my steps, a light for the pathway before me.

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
— Your word is a lantern which guides my steps, a light for the pathway before me.

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,
one God, for ever and ever.
— Amen.

ACCLAMATION (at least in the communal celebration)

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