Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. III:
Ordinary: 651
Proper of Seasons: 397
Psalter: Wednesday, Week IV, 1187

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 Bless the Lord, my soul; never forget all he has done for you.

Psalm 103
Praise for God’s tender compassion
In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us (see Luke 1:78).

I

My soul, give thanks to the Lord,
all my being, bless his holy name.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
and never forget all his blessings.

It is he who forgives all your guilt,
who heals every one of your ills,
who redeems your life from the grave,
who crowns you with love and compassion,
who fills your life with good things,
renewing your youth like an eagle’s.

The Lord does deeds of justice,
gives judgment for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses
and his deeds to Israel’s sons.

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. Bless the Lord, my soul; never forget all he has done for you.

Ant. 2 As a father is gentle with his children, so is the Lord with those who revere him.

II

The Lord is compassion and love,
slow to anger and rich in mercy.
His wrath will come to an end;
he will not be angry for ever.
He does not treat us according to our sins
nor repay us according to our faults.

For as the heavens are high above the earth
so strong is his love for those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west
so far does he remove our sins.

As a father has compassion on his sons,
the Lord has pity on those who fear him;
for he knows of what we are made,
he remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are like grass;
he flowers like the flower of the field;
the wind blows and he is gone
and his place never sees him again.

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. As a father is gentle with his children, so is the Lord with those who revere him.

Ant. 3 Bless the Lord, all you his works!

III

But the love of the Lord is everlasting
upon those who hold him in fear;
his justice reaches out to children’s children
when they keep his covenant in truth,
when they keep his will in their mind.

The Lord has set his sway in heaven
and his kingdom is ruling over all.
Give thanks to the Lord, all his angels,
mighty in power, fulfilling his word,
who heed the voice of his word.

Give thanks to the Lord, all his hosts,
his servants who do his will.
Give thanks to the Lord, all his works,
in every place where he rules.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord!

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

You have compassion for the sinner, Lord, as a father has compassion for his children. Heal the weakness of your people and save us from lasting death that we may praise and glorify you for ever.

Ant. Bless the Lord, all you his works!

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.

Lord, make me understand the way of your precepts.
— And I will marvel at your wisdom.

READINGS

First reading
From the first book of Samuel
19:8-10; 20:1-17
The friendship of David and Jonathan

When war broke out again, David went out to fight against the Philistines and inflicted a great defeat upon them, putting them to flight. Then an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with spear in hand and David was playing the harp nearby. Saul tried to nail David to the wall with the spear, but David eluded Saul, so that the spear struck only the wall, and David got away safe.

David fled from the sheds near Ramah, and went to Jonathan. “What have I done?” he asked him. “What crime or what offense does your father hold against me that he seeks my life?” Jonathan answered him: “Heaven forbid that you should die! My father does nothing, great or small, without disclosing it to me. Why, then, should my father conceal this from me? This cannot be so!” But David replied: “Your father is well aware that I am favored with your friendship, so he has decided, ‘Jonathan must not know of this lest he be grieved.’ Nevertheless, as the Lord lives and as you live, there is but a step between me and death.”

Jonathan then said to David, “I will do whatever you wish.” David answered: “Tomorrow is the new moon, when I should in fact dine with the king. Let me go and hide in the open country until evening. If it turns out that your father misses me, say, ‘David urged me to let him go on short notice to his city Bethlehem, because his whole clan is holding its seasonal sacrifice there.’ If he says, ‘Very well,’ your servant is safe. But if he becomes quite angry, you can be sure he has planned some harm. Do this kindness for your servant because of the Lord’s bond between us, into which you brought me: if I am guilty, kill me yourself ! Why should you give me up to your father?”

But Jonathan answered: “Not I! If ever I find out that my father is determined to inflict injury upon you, I will certainly let you know.” David then asked Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father gives you a harsh answer?”

[Jonathan replied to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” When they were out in the open country together, Jonathan said to David: “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, I will sound out my father about this time tomorrow. Whether he is well disposed toward David or not, I will send you the information. Should it please my father to bring any injury upon you, may the Lord do thus and so to Jonathan if I do not apprise you of it and send you on your way in peace. May the Lord be with you even as he was with my father. Only this: if I am still alive, may you show me the kindness of the Lord. But if I die, never withdraw your kindness from my house. And when the Lord exterminates all the enemies of David from the surface of the earth, the name of Jonathan must never be allowed by the family of David to die out from among you, or the Lord will make you answer for it.”]

[And in his love for David, Jonathan renewed his oath to him, because he loved him as his very self.]

RESPONSORY Proverbs 17:17; 1 John 4:7

A true friend loves you at all times,
— and a brother proves himself in adversity.

Everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
— And a brother proves himself in adversity.

Second reading
From a treatise on Spiritual Friendship by Blessed Aelred, abbot
True, perfect and eternal friendship

Jonathan, outstanding among all young men, took no heed of his royal lineage or his hope of the throne, but allied himself with David the servant and made him his equal in friendship before the Lord. The king had made David a fugitive, forced him to hide in the desert, and condemned him to death. And yet Jonathan preferred David to himself, exalting him, humbling himself. You, he said, will be king and I will follow after you.

What a splendid picture of true friendship! What an astonishing situation! Here was the king, raging against his servant and stirring up the whole country as if David were aiming at the crown. He accuses the priests of treason and puts them to death on a mere suspicion. He combs and searches woods and valleys, besieges the mountains and rocky crags with troops, and every man is sworn to wreak vengeance upon the source of the king’s indignation. Only Jonathan, who alone should have had greater cause for envy, thought it right to resist his father. Putting himself at the service of his friend, he offered help and advice in his time of need. Jonathan set friendship above a kingdom. You are to be the king, he said, and I will be second to you. And still the father tried to incite his son to envy David. He covered him with abuse and frightened him by threatening to deprive him of the kingdom and strip him of his rank.

Even when the king pronounced sentence of death upon David, Jonathan still did not desert his friend. Why should David die? How has he sinned? What has he done? When he risked his life and killed the Philistine, you rejoiced. Why then should he die? So maddened was the king at these words that he tried to pin Jonathan to the wall with his spear, heaping upon him further abuse and threats: Bastard son of a wayward woman, he screamed, I know well that, to your undoing and that of your shameful mother’s, you love him. With this he spewed forth the full measure of his venom over Jonathan and uttered the words that were his final attempt to arouse bitter envy and jealous ambition: As long as the son of Jesse lives, your kingdom shall never be established.

Who would not be moved to envy by these words? Whose love, whose favor, whose abiding friendship would not be corrupted, weakened and destroyed by such an utterance? But in his great love, this young man kept faith with his friend. He was steadfast in the face of threats, unmoved by insults; forgetting renown, he thought only of service. He spurned a kingdom for the sake of friendship. You, he said, will be king, and I will be second to you.

This is what truly perfect, stable and lasting friendship is, a tie that envy cannot spoil, nor suspicion weaken, nor ambition destroy. A friendship so tempted yielded not an inch, was buffeted but did not collapse. In the face of so many insults, it remained unshaken. Go, therefore, and do likewise.

RESPONSORY Sirach 6:14, 17

A faithful friend is a secure shelter.
— Whoever finds one, finds a treasure.

Whoever fears the Lord makes true friendships,
for the friend will be like himself.
— Whoever finds one, finds a treasure.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Grant, O Lord,
that we may always revere and love your holy name,
for you never deprive of your guidance
those you set firm on the foundation of your love.
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.