Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. IV:
Ordinary: 615
Proper of Seasons: 170
Psalter: Thursday, Week I, 729

Christian Prayer:
Does not contain Office of Readings.

Office of Readings for Thursday 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 The word of the Lord is a strong shield for all who put their trust in him.

Psalm 18
Hymn of thanksgiving
If God is on our side who can be against us? (Romans 8:31).

IV

As for God, his ways are perfect;
the word of the Lord, purest gold.
He indeed is the shield
of all who make him their refuge.

For who is God but the Lord?
Who is a rock but our God?
The God who girds me with strength
and makes the path safe before me.

My feet you made swift as the deer’s;
you have made me stand firm on the heights.
You have trained my hands for battle
and my arms to bend the heavy bow.

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 word of the Lord is a strong shield for all who put their trust in him.

Ant. 2 Your strong right hand has upheld me, Lord.

V

You gave me your saving shield;
you upheld me, trained me with care.
You gave me freedom for my steps;
my feet have never slipped.

I pursued and overtook my foes,
never turning back till they were slain.
I smote them so they could not rise;
they fell beneath my feet.

You girded me with strength for battle;
you made my enemies fall beneath me,
you made my foes take flight;
those who hated me I destroyed.

They cried, but there was no one to save them;
they cried to the Lord, but in vain.
I crushed them fine as dust before the wind;
trod them down like dirt in the streets.

You saved me from the feuds of the people
and put me at the head of the nations.
People unknown to me served me:
when they heard of me they obeyed me.

Foreign nations came to me cringing:
foreign nations faded away.
They came trembling out of their strongholds.

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. Your strong right hand has upheld me, Lord.

Ant. 3 May the living God, my Savior, be praised for ever.

VI

Long life to the Lord, my rock!
Praised be the God who saves me,
the God who gives me redress
and subdues people under me.

You saved me from my furious foes.
You set me above my assailants.
You saved me from violent men,
so I will praise you, Lord, among the nations:
I will sing a psalm to your name.

He has given great victories to his king
and shown his love for his anointed,
for David and his sons for ever.

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. May the living God, my Savior, be praised for ever.

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.

Open my eyes, Lord, that I may see.
— The wonders of your law.

READINGS

First reading
From the book of the prophet Jeremiah
3:1-5, 19–4:4
The call to conversion

This word of the Lord came to me:
If a man sends away his wife
and, after leaving him,
she marries another man,
Does the first husband come back to her?
Would not the land be wholly defiled?
But you have sinned with many lovers,
and yet you would return to me! says the Lord.

Lift your eyes to the heights, and see,
where have men not lain with you?
By the waysides you waited for them
like an Arab in the desert.
You defiled the land
by your wicked harlotry.
Therefore the showers were withheld,
the spring rain failed.

But because you have a harlot’s brow,
you refused to blush.
Even now do you not call me, “My father,
you who are the bridegroom of my youth”?
“Will he keep his wrath forever,
will he hold his grudge to the end?”
This is what you say; yet you do
all the evil you can.
I had thought:
How I should like to treat you as sons,
And give you a pleasant land,
a heritage most beautiful among the nations!
You would call me, “My Father,” I thought,
and never cease following me.
But like a woman faithless to her lover,
even so have you been faithless to me,
O house of Israel, says the Lord.

A cry is heard on the heights!
the plaintive weeping of Israel’s children,
Because they have perverted their ways
and forgotten the Lord, their God.
Return, rebellious children,
and I will cure you of your rebelling.

“Here we are, we now come to you
because you are the Lord, our God.
Deceptive indeed are the hills,
the thronging mountains;
In the Lord, our God, alone
is the salvation of Israel.
The shame-god has devoured
our fathers’ toil from our youth,
Their sheep and their cattle,
their sons and their daughters.
Let us lie down in our shame,
let our disgrace cover us,
for we have sinned against the Lord, our God,
From our youth to this day, we and our fathers also;
we listened not to the voice of the Lord, our God.”

If you wish to return, O Israel, says the Lord,
return to me.
If you put your detestable things out of my sight,
and do not stray,
Then you can swear, “As the Lord lives,”
in truth, in judgment, and in justice;
Then shall the nations use his name in blessing,
and glory in him.

For to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, thus says the Lord:

Till your untilled ground,
sow not among thorns.
For the sake of the Lord, be circumcised,
remove the foreskins of your hearts,
O men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem;
Lest my anger break out like fire,
and burn till none can quench it,
because of your evil deeds.

RESPONSORY Jeremiah 14:7; Psalm 130:3

Though our sins bear witness against us, act, O Lord, for your name’s sake.
— We have been disloyal many times and have sinned against you.

If you, O Lord, should mark our iniquities, Lord, who could bear it?
— We have been disloyal many times and have sinned against you.

Second reading
From an instruction by Saint Columban, abbot
You, O God, are everything to us

Brethren, let us follow that vocation by which we are called from life to the fountain of life. He is the fountain, not only of living water, but of eternal life. He is the fountain of light and spiritual illumination; for from him come all these things: wisdom, life and eternal light. The author of life is the fountain of life; the creator of light is the fountain of spiritual illumination. Therefore, let us seek the fountain of light and life and the living water by despising what we see, by leaving the world and dwelling in the highest heavens. Let us seek these things, and like rational and shrewd fish may we drink the living water which wells up to eternal life.

Merciful God, good Lord, I wish that you would unite me to that fountain, that there I may drink of the living spring of the water of life with those others who thirst after you. There in that heavenly region may I ever dwell, delighted with abundant sweetness, and say: “How sweet is the fountain of living water which never fails, the water welling up to eternal life.”

O God, you are yourself that fountain ever and again to be desired, ever and again to be consumed. Lord Christ, always give us this water to be for us the source of the living water which wells up to eternal life. I ask you for your great benefits. Who does not know it? You, King of glory, know how to give great gifts, and you have promised them; there is nothing greater than you, and you bestowed yourself upon us; you gave yourself for us.

Therefore, we ask that we may know what we love, since we ask nothing other than that you give us yourself. For you are our all: our life, our light, our salvation, our food and our drink, our God. Inspire our hearts, I ask you, Jesus, with that breath of your Spirit; wound our souls with your love, so that the soul of each and every one of us may say in truth: Show me my soul’s desire, for I am wounded by your love.

These are the wounds I wish for Lord. Blessed is the soul so wounded by love. Such a soul seeks the fountain of eternal life and drinks from it, although it continues to thirst and its thirst grows ever greater even as it drinks. Therefore, the more the soul loves, the more it desires to love, and the greater its suffering, the greater its healing. In this same way may our God and Lord Jesus Christ, the good and saving physician, wound the depths of our souls with a healing wound—the same Jesus Christ who reigns in unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

RESPONSORY John 4:13-15

Whoever drinks the water I shall give will never be thirsty again.
— The water I shall give you will become in you a spring welling up to eternal life.

O Lord, give me this water that I may no longer thirst.
— The water I shall give you will become in you a spring welling up to eternal life.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

O God,
who cause the minds of the faithful
to unite in a single purpose,
grant your people to love what you command
and to desire what you promise, that,
amid the uncertainties of this world,
our hearts may be fixed on that place
where true gladness is found.
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.