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Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. III:
Ordinary: 651
Proper of Seasons: 301
Psalter: Wednesday, Week I, 744

Christian Prayer:
Does not contain Office of Readings.

Office of Readings for Wednesday 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 I love you, Lord; you are my strength.

Psalm 18:2-30
Thanksgiving for salvation and victory
At that time there was a violent earthquake (Revelation 11:15).

I

I love you, Lord, my strength,
my rock, my fortress, my savior.
My God is the rock where I take refuge;
my shield, my mighty help, my stronghold.

The Lord is worthy of all praise;
when I call I am saved from my foes.

The waves of death rose about me;
the torrents of destruction assailed me;
the snares of the grave entangled me;
the traps of death confronted me.

In my anguish I called to the Lord;
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came to his ears.

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 love you, Lord; you are my strength.

Ant. 2 The Lord has saved me; he wanted me for his own.

II

Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the mountains were shaken to their base:
they reeled at his terrible anger.
Smoke came forth from his nostrils
and scorching fire from his mouth:
coals were set ablaze by its heat.

He lowered the heavens and came down,
a black cloud under his feet.
He came enthroned on the cherubim,
he flew on the wings of the wind.

He made the darkness his covering,
the dark waters of the clouds, his tent.
A brightness shone out before him
with hailstones and flashes of fire.

The Lord thundered in the heavens;
the Most High let his voice be heard.
He shot his arrows, scattered the foe,
flashed his lightnings and put them to flight.

The bed of the ocean was revealed;
the foundations of the world were laid bare
at the thunder of your threat, O Lord,
at the blast of the breath of your anger.

From on high he reached down and seized me;
he drew me forth from the mighty waters.
He snatched me from my powerful foe,
from my enemies whose strength I could not match.

They assailed me in the day of my misfortune,
but the Lord was my support.
He brought me forth into freedom,
he saved me because he loved 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.

Ant. The Lord has saved me; he wanted me for his own.

Ant. 3 Lord, kindle a light for my guidance and scatter my darkness.

III

He rewarded me because I was just,
repaid me, for my hands were clean,
for I have kept the way of the Lord
and have not fallen away from my God.

For his judgments are all before me:
I have never neglected his commands.
I have always been upright before him;
I have kept myself from guilt.

He repaid me because I was just
and my hands were clean in his eyes.
You are loving with those who love you:
you show yourself perfect with the perfect.

With the sincere you show yourself sincere,
but the cunning you outdo in cunning.
For you save a humble people
but humble the eyes that are proud.

You, O Lord, are my lamp,
my God who lightens my darkness.
With you I can break through any barrier,
with my God I can scale any wall.

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. Lord, kindle a light for my guidance and scatter my darkness.

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.

All wondered at the words of grace.
— Which came from the mouth of the Lord.

READINGS

First reading
From the book of Job
32:1-6; 33:1-22
Elihu speaks of the mystery of God

The three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. But the anger of Elihu, son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was kindled. He was angry with Job for considering himself rather than God to be in the right. He was angry also with the three friends because they had not found a good answer and had not condemned Job. But since these men were older than he, Elihu bided his time before addressing Job. When, however, Elihu saw that there was no reply in the mouths of the three men, his wrath was inflamed.

So Elihu, son of Barachel the Buzite, spoke out and said:

I am young and you are very old;
therefore I held back and was afraid
to declare to you my knowledge.
Therefore, O Job, hear my discourse,
and hearken to all my words.
Behold, now I open my mouth;
my tongue and my voice form words.
I will state directly what is in my mind,
my lips shall utter knowledge sincerely;
For the spirit of God has made me,
the breath of the Almighty keeps me alive.
If you are able, refute me;
draw up your arguments and stand forth.
Behold I, like yourself, have been taken
from the same clay by God.
Therefore no fear of me should dismay you,
nor should my presence weigh heavily upon you.

But you have said in my hearing,
as I listened to the sound of your words:
“I am clean and without transgression;
I am innocent; there is no guilt in me.
Yet he invents pretexts against me
and reckons me as his enemy.
He puts my feet in the stocks;
he watches all my ways!”

In this you are not just, let me tell you;
for God is greater than man.
Why, then, do you make complaint against him
that he gives no account of his doings?
For God does speak, perhaps once,
or even twice, though one perceive it not.
In a dream, in a vision of the night,
[when deep sleep falls upon men]
as they slumber in their beds,
It is then he opens the ears of men
and as a warning to them, terrifies them;
By turning man from evil
and keeping pride away from him,
He withholds his soul from the pit
and his life from passing to the grave.

Or a man is chastened on his bed by pain
and unceasing suffering within his frame,
So that to his appetite food becomes repulsive,
and his senses reject the choicest nourishment.
His flesh is wasted so that it cannot be seen,
and his bones, once invisible, appear;
His soul draws near to the pit,
his life to the place of the dead.

RESPONSORY Romans 11:33-34

How deep are the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
— How unsearchable his judgments!

Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been his counselor?
— How unsearchable his judgments!

Second reading
From the Moral Reflections on Job by Saint Gregory the Great, pope.
True doctrine dispels arrogance

Listen, Job, to what I say and ponder all my words. The teaching of the arrogant has this characteristic: they do not know how to introduce their teaching humbly and they cannot convey correctly to others the things they understand correctly themselves. With their words they betray what they teach; they give the impression that they live on lofty heights from which they look down disdainfully on those whom they are teaching; they regard the latter as inferiors, to whom they do not deign to listen as they talk; indeed they scarcely deign to talk to them at all — they simply lay down the law.

To teachers of this kind the Lord through the prophet says rightly: But you will rule them with severity and with power. There is no doubt that such as are prone not to correct their subjects with quiet reasoning, but to compel them to change by rough and domineering methods, rule with severity and power.

On the contrary true doctrine all the more effectively shuns the voice of arrogance through reflection, in which it pursues the arrogant teacher himself with the arrows of its words. It ensures that the pride which it attacks in the hearts of those listening to the sacred words will not in fact be preached by arrogant conduct. For true doctrine tries both to teach by words and to demonstrate by living example–humility, which is the mother and mistress of virtues. Its goal is to express humility among the disciples of truth more by deeds than by words.

Accordingly, when addressing the Thessalonians, Paul is oblivious of his own eminent dignity as an apostle; he actually says: We became as little children in your midst. Similarly, the apostle Peter enjoins: Be always prepared to satisfy everybody who asks a reason for the hope which is in you; and by adding the words, with a good conscience, speak gently and respectfully, Peter draws attention to the manner in which sacred doctrine should be taught.

When he tells his disciples: These things command and teach with all power, Paul really recommends the credibility that goes hand in hand with good behavior rather than the domineering exercise of power. When one practices first and preaches afterwards, one is really teaching with power. Doctrine loses credibility, if conscience tethers the tongue. Paul, therefore, in the saying quoted above, does not refer to the power of lofty rhetoric but to the confidence elicited by good deeds. Of the Lord, too, it is said: He taught with authority unlike the Scribes and the Pharisees. He alone in a unique and sovereign way spoke from the power of his goodness because no evil weakness led him into sin. For he had from the power of his own divine nature what he gave to us through the sinlessness of his human nature.

RESPONSORY 1 Peter 5:5; Matthew 11:29

Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another,
— for God resists the proud and gives his favor to the humble.

Learn of me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.
— For God resists the proud and gives his favor to the humble.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

O God,
whose providence
never fails in its design,
keep from us, we humbly beseech you,
all that might harm us and grant all
that works for our good.
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.