This is the Liturgy of the Hours for December 31. Your local date is .
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Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. III:
Ordinary: 651
Proper of Seasons: 514
Psalter: Sunday, Week IV, 1123
Christian Prayer:
Does not contain Office of Readings.
Office of Readings for Sunday 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.
HYMN
On this day, the first of days,
God the Father's name we praise;
Who, creation's Lord and spring,
Did the world from darkness bring.
On this day the eternal Son
Over death his triumph won;
On this day the Spirit came
With his gifts of living flame.
Father, who didst fashion man
Godlike in thy loving plan,
Fill us with that love divine,
And conform our wills to thine.
Word made flesh, all hail to thee!
Thou from sin has set us free,
And with thee we die and rise
Unto God in sacrifice.
Holy Spirit, you impart
Gifts of love to every heart;
Give us light and grace, we pray,
Fill our hearts this holy day.
God, the blessed Three in One,
May thy holy will be done;
In thy word our souls are free.
And we rest this day with thee.
𝄞 | "On this day, the first of days" by Gabe Bouck, Rebecca Hincke • Title: On this day, the first of days; Words: From the Breviary of the Diocese of LeMans, 1748; translated by Henry W. Baker in 1861.; Music by Johann A. Freylinghausen (1704); Artists: Gabe Bouck and Rebecca Hincke; Recording (c) 2016 Surgeworks, Inc. • Albums that contain this Hymn: Divine Office |
PSALMODY
Ant. 1 Who can climb the Lord’s mountain, or stand in his holy place?
Psalm 24
The Lord’s entry into his temple
Christ opened heaven for us in the manhood he assumed (St. Irenaeus).
The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all its peoples.
It is he who set it on the seas;
on the waters he made it firm.
Ant. Who can climb the Lord’s mountain, or stand in his holy place?
Who shall climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
The man with clean hands and pure heart,
who desires not worthless things,
who has not sworn so as to deceive his neighbor.
Ant. Who can climb the Lord’s mountain, or stand in his holy place?
He shall receive blessings from the Lord
and reward from the God who saves him.
Such are the men who seek him,
seek the face of the God of Jacob.
Ant. Who can climb the Lord’s mountain, or stand in his holy place?
O gates, lift high your heads;
grow higher, ancient doors.
Let him enter, the king of glory!
Ant. Who can climb the Lord’s mountain, or stand in his holy place?
Who is the king of glory?
The Lord, the mighty, the valiant,
the Lord, the valiant in war.
Ant. Who can climb the Lord’s mountain, or stand in his holy place?
O gates, lift high your heads;
grow higher, ancient doors.
Let him enter, the king of glory!
Ant. Who can climb the Lord’s mountain, or stand in his holy place?
Who is he, the king of glory?
He, the Lord of armies,
he is the king of glory.
Ant. Who can climb the Lord’s mountain, or stand in his holy place?
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
When your Son was unjustly condemned, Lord God, and surrounded by the impious, he cried to you, and you set him free. Watch over your people as the treasure of your heart and guide their steps along safe paths that they may see your face.
Ant. Who can climb the Lord’s mountain, or stand in his holy place?
Ant. 2 Bless our God, you nations of the world; he has given us life, alleluia.
Psalm 66
Eucharistic hymn
The Lord is risen and all people have been brought by him to the Father (Hesychius).
I
Cry out with joy to God, all the earth,
O sing to the glory of his name.
O render him glorious praise.
Say to God: “How tremendous your deeds!
Ant. Bless our God, you nations of the world; he has given us life, alleluia.
Because of the greatness of your strength
your enemies cringe before you.
Before you all the earth shall bow;
shall sing to you, sing to your name!”
Ant. Bless our God, you nations of the world; he has given us life, alleluia.
Come and see the works of God,
tremendous his deeds among men.
He turned the sea into dry land,
they passed through the river dry-shod.
Ant. Bless our God, you nations of the world; he has given us life, alleluia.
Let our joy then be in him;
he rules for ever by his might.
His eyes keep watch over the nations;
let rebels not rise against him.
Ant. Bless our God, you nations of the world; he has given us life, alleluia.
O peoples, bless our God,
let the voice of his praise resound,
of the God who gave life to our souls
and kept our feet from stumbling.
Ant. Bless our God, you nations of the world; he has given us life, alleluia.
For you, O God, have tested us,
you have tried us as silver is tried:
you led us, God, into the snare;
you laid a heavy burden on our backs.
Ant. Bless our God, you nations of the world; he has given us life, alleluia.
You let men ride over our heads;
we went through fire and through water
but then you brought us relief.
Ant. Bless our God, you nations of the world; he has given us life, alleluia.
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 our God, you nations of the world; he has given us life, alleluia.
Ant. 3 Listen to me, all you who revere God, let me tell you what great things he has done for me, alleluia.
II
Burnt offering I bring to your house;
to you I will pay my vows,
the vows which my lips have uttered,
which my mouth spoke in my distress.
Ant. Listen to me, all you who revere God, let me tell you what great things he has done for me, alleluia.
I will offer burnt offerings of fatlings
with the smoke of burning rams.
I will offer bullocks and goats.
Ant. Listen to me, all you who revere God, let me tell you what great things he has done for me, alleluia.
Come and hear, all who fear God.
I will tell what he did for my soul:
to him I cried aloud,
with high praise ready on my tongue.
Ant. Listen to me, all you who revere God, let me tell you what great things he has done for me, alleluia.
If there had been evil in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
But truly God has listened;
he has heeded the voice of my prayer.
Ant. Listen to me, all you who revere God, let me tell you what great things he has done for me, alleluia.
Blessed be God who did not reject my prayer
nor withhold his love from me.
Ant. Listen to me, all you who revere God, let me tell you what great things he has done for me, alleluia.
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 Father, in the death and resurrection of your own Son you brought us through the waters of baptism to the shores of new life. By those waters and the fire of the Holy Spirit you have given each of us consolation. Accept our sacrifice of praise; may our lives be a total offering to you, and may we deserve to enter your house and there with Christ praise your unfailing power.
Ant. Listen to me, all you who revere God, let me tell you what great things he has done for me, alleluia.
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.
God’s word is alive; it strikes to the heart.
— It pierces more surely than a two-edged sword.
READINGS
First reading
From the beginning of the second letter of the apostle Paul to the Corinthians
1:1-14
Thanksgiving in the midst of tribulations
Paul, by God’s will an apostle of Jesus Christ, and Timothy his brother, to the church of God that is at Corinth and to all the holy ones of the church who live in Achaia. Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Praised be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation! He comforts us in all our afflictions and thus enables us to comfort those who are in trouble, with the same consolation we have received from him. As we have shared much in the suffering of Christ, so through Christ do we share abundantly in his consolation. If we are afflicted it is for your encouragement and salvation, and when we are consoled it is for your consolation, so that you may endure patiently the same sufferings we endure. Our hope for you is firm because we know that just as you share in the sufferings, so you will share in the consolation.
Brothers, we do not wish to leave you in the dark about the trouble we had in Asia; we were crushed beyond our strength, even to the point of despairing of life. We were left to feel like men condemned to death so that we might trust, not in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. He rescued us from that danger of death and will continue to do so. We have put our hope in him who will never cease to deliver us. But you must help us with your prayers, so that on our behalf God may be thanked for the gift granted us through the prayers of so many.
Conscience gives testimony to the boast that in our behavior toward all and especially toward you we have always acted from God-given holiness and candor; this has been prompted, not by debased human wisdom, but by God’s goodness. We never write anything that you cannot read and understand. I hope that, just as you know us to a certain degree already, you will in time come to know us well, and will recognize that we shall be your boast, and you ours, on the day of our Lord Jesus.
RESPONSORY Psalm 94:18-19
Your love, O Lord, sustains me.
— In the midst of all my troubles, your consolation gladdens my soul.
As we share abundantly in Christ’s suffering, so through Christ we share abundantly in his consolation.
— In the midst of all my troubles, your consolation gladdens my soul.
Second reading
From the beginning of a letter to the Magnesians by Saint Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr
We should be Christians in deed, as well as in name
Ignatius, also called Theophorus, to the church at Magnesia on the Meander, a church blessed with the grace of God the Father in Christ Jesus, our Savior, in whom I salute you. I send you every good wish in God the Father and in Jesus Christ.
I was delighted to hear of your love of God, so well-ordered and devout, and so I decided to address you in the faith of Jesus Christ. Honored as I am with a name of the greatest splendor, though I am still in chains I sing with the praises of the churches, and pray that they be united with the flesh and the spirit of Jesus Christ, who is our eternal life; a union in faith and love, to which nothing must be preferred; and above all a union with Jesus and the Father, for if in him we endure all the power of the prince of this world, and escape unharmed, we shall make our way to God.
I have had the honor of seeing you in the person of Damas your bishop, a man of God, and in the persons of your worthy presbyters, Bassus and Apollonius, and my fellow-servant, the deacon Zotion; may I continue to take delight in him for he is obedient to the bishop as to the grace of God, and to the presbyters as to the law of Jesus Christ.
Now it hardly becomes you to presume on your bishop’s youth, but rather, having regard to the power of God the Father, to show him every mark of respect. This, I understand, is what your holy presbyters do, not taking advantage of his youthful condition but deferring to him with the prudence which comes from God, or rather not to him but to the Father of Jesus Christ, to the bishop of all. So then, for the honor of him who loves us, it is proper to obey without hypocrisy; for a man does not so much deceive the bishop he can see as try to deceive the bishop he cannot see. In such a case he has to reckon not with a man, but with God who knows the secrets of the heart.
We should then really live as Christians and not merely have the name; for many invoke the bishop’s name but do everything apart from him. Such men, I think, do not have a good conscience, for they do not assemble lawfully as commanded.
All things have an end, and two things, life and death, are side by side set before us, and each man will go to his own place. Just as there are two coinages, one of God and the other of the world, each with its own image, so unbelievers bear the image of this world, and those who have faith with love bear the image of God the Father through Jesus Christ. Unless we are ready through his power to die in the likeness of his passion, his life is not in us.
RESPONSORY 1 Timothy 4:12, 16, 15
Be an example for all believers in speech and conduct, in love, faith and purity.
— In this way you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
Ponder these duties and attend to them, so that all may see your progress.
— In this way you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
TE DEUM
You are God: we praise you;
You are the Lord: we acclaim you;
You are the eternal Father:
All creation worships you.
To you all angels, all the powers of heaven,
Cherubim and Seraphim, sing in endless praise:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
The glorious company of apostles praise you.
The noble fellowship of prophets praise you.
The white-robed army of martyrs praise you.
Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you:
Father, of majesty unbounded,
your true and only Son, worthy of all worship,
and the Holy Spirit, advocate and guide.
You, Christ, are the King of glory,
the eternal Son of the Father.
When you became man to set us free
you did not spurn the Virgin’s womb.
You overcame the sting of death,
and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
You are seated at God’s right hand in glory.
We believe that you will come, and be our judge.
Come then, Lord, and help your people,
bought with the price of your own blood,
and bring us with your saints
to glory everlasting.
Save your people, Lord, and bless your inheritance.
— Govern and uphold them now and always.
Day by day we bless you.
— We praise your name for ever.
Keep us today, Lord, from all sin.
— Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy.
Lord, show us your love and mercy,
— for we have put our trust in you.
In you, Lord, is our hope:
— And we shall never hope in vain.
CONCLUDING PRAYER
Show favor, O Lord,
to your servants
and mercifully increase the gifts of your grace,
that, made fervent in hope, faith and charity,
they may be ever watchful in keeping your commands.
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.
The Faith Journey of our Community
JamesTheElder on July 23rd, 2023 at 0:38
Saint of the Day