Thursday 30 April 2020
Thursday of the 3rd week of Eastertide
or Saint Pius V, Pope
Office of Readings
Introduction (without Invitatory)
If this is the first Hour that you are reciting today, use the version with the Invitatory Psalm instead.
O God, come to our aid.
O Lord, make haste to help us.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen. Alleluia.
________
Hymn
Love’s redeeming work is done,
fought the fight, the battle won.
Lo, our Sun’s eclipse is o’er!
Lo, he sets in blood no more!
Vain the stone, the watch, the seal!
Christ has burst the gates of hell;
death in vain forbids him rise;
Christ has opened paradise.
Lives again our victor King;
where, O death, is now thy sting?
Dying once, he all doth save;
where thy victory, O grave?
Soar we now where Christ has led,
following our exalted Head;
made like him, like him we rise,
ours the cross, the grave, the skies.
Hail the Lord of earth and heaven!
Praise to thee by both be given:
thee we greet triumphant now;
hail, the Resurrection thou!
________
Psalm 88 (89)
A lament at the ruin of the house of David
“He has raised up for us a horn of salvation in the house of David” (Lk 1:69).
Pay heed, Lord, and see how we are taunted.
And yét you have spúrned, rejécted, *
you are ángry with the óne you have anóinted.
You have bróken your cóvenant with your sérvant *
and dishónoured his crówn in the dúst.
You have bróken down áll his wálls *
and redúced his fórtresses to rúins.
He is despóiled by áll who pass bý; *
he has becóme the táunt of his néighbours.
You have exálted the ríght hand of his fóes; *
you have máde all his énemies rejóice.
You have máde his swórd give wáy, *
you háve not uphéld him in báttle.
You have bróught his glóry to an énd; *
you have húrled his thróne to the gróund.
You have cút short the yéars of his yóuth; *
you have héaped disgráce upón him.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
Pay heed, Lord, and see how we are taunted.
________
Psalm 88 (89)
I am the root and stock of David; I am the splendid morning star. Alleluia.
How lóng, O Lórd? Will you híde yourself for éver? *
How lóng will your ánger búrn like a fíre?
Remémber, Lórd, the shórtness of my lífe *
and how fráil you have máde the sóns of mén.
What mán can líve and néver see déath? *
Who can sáve himsélf from the grásp of the gráve?
Whére are your mércies of the pást, O Lórd, *
whích you have swórn in your fáithfulness to Dávid?
Remémber, Lórd, how your sérvant is táunted, *
how I háve to béar all the ínsults of the péoples.
Thús your énemies táunt me, O Lórd, *
mócking your anóinted at évery stép.
Bléssed be the Lórd for ever. *
Amén, amén!
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
I am the root and stock of David; I am the splendid morning star. Alleluia.
Psalm-prayer
Lord, God of mercy and fidelity, you made a new and lasting pact with men and sealed it in the blood of your Son. Forgive the folly of our disloyalty and make us keep your commandments, so that in your new covenant we may be witnesses and heralds of your faithfulness and love on earth, and sharers of your glory in heaven.
________
Psalm 89 (90)
Let the Lord's glory shine upon us
“With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day” (2 Pet 3:8).
Our years pass like grass; but you, God, are without beginning or end. Alleluia.
O Lórd, you have béen our réfuge *
from óne generátion to the néxt.
Befóre the móuntains were bórn †
or the éarth or the wórld brought fórth, *
you are Gód, without begínning or énd.
You túrn men báck into dúst *
and say: ‘Go báck, sóns of mén.’
To yóur eyes a thóusand yéars †
are like yésterday, cóme and góne, *
no móre than a wátch in the níght.
You swéep men awáy like a dréam, *
like gráss which springs úp in the mórning.
In the mórning it springs úp and flówers: *
by évening it wíthers and fádes.
So wé are destróyed in your ánger, *
strúck with térror in your fúry.
Our gúilt lies ópen befóre you; *
our sécrets in the líght of your fáce.
All our dáys pass awáy in your ánger. *
Our lífe is óver like a sígh.
Our spán is séventy yéars, *
or éighty for thóse who are stróng.
And most of thése are émptiness and páin. *
They pass swíftly and wé are góne.
Who understánds the pówer of your ánger *
and féars the stréngth of your fúry?
Make us knów the shórtness of our lífe *
that we may gáin wísdom of héart.
Lord, relént! Is your ánger for éver? *
Show píty tó your sérvants.
In the mórning, fíll us with your lóve; *
we shall exúlt and rejóice all our dáys.
Give us jóy to bálance our afflíction *
for the yéars when we knéw misfórtune.
Show fórth your wórk to your sérvants; *
let your glóry shíne on their chíldren.
Let the fávour of the Lórd be upón us: †
give succéss to the wórk of our hánds, *
give succéss to the wórk of our hánds.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
Our years pass like grass; but you, God, are without beginning or end. Alleluia.
Psalm-prayer
Eternal Father, you give us life despite our guilt and even add days and years to our lives in order to bring us wisdom. Make us love and obey you, so that the works of our hands may always display what your hands have done, until the day we gaze upon the beauty of your face.
________
℣. God raised our Lord from the dead, alleluia.
℟. He will also raise us by his power, alleluia.
________
Readings (official one-year cycle)
First Reading
Apocalypse 9:13-21
The plague of war
The sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice come out of the four horns of the golden altar in front of God. It spoke to the sixth angel with the trumpet, and said, ‘Release the four angels that are chained up at the great river Euphrates.’ These four angels had been put there ready for this hour of this day of this month of this year, and now they were released to destroy a third of the human race. I learnt how many there were in their army: twice ten thousand times ten thousand mounted men. In my vision I saw the horses, and the riders with their breastplates of flame colour, hyacinth-blue and sulphur-yellow; the horses had lions’ heads, and fire, smoke and sulphur were coming out of their mouths. It was by these three plagues, the fire, the smoke and the sulphur coming out of their mouths, that the one third of the human race was killed. All the horses’ power was in their mouths and their tails: their tails were like snakes, and had heads that were able to wound. But the rest of the human race, who escaped these plagues, refused either to abandon the things they had made with their own hands – the idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood that can neither see nor hear nor move – or to stop worshipping devils. Nor did they give up their murdering, or witchcraft, or fornication or stealing.
Responsory
Ac 17:30-31; Jl 1:13-14
℟. God calls upon all men, everywhere, to repent,* because he has fixed a day when he will pronounce just judgement on the whole world, alleluia.
℣. Ministers of God, call together all the inhabitants of the country, and cry out to the Lord,* because he has fixed a day when he will pronounce just judgement on the whole world, alleluia.
________
Second Reading
From the treatise "Against the Heresies" by St Irenaeus
The Eucharist, pledge of our resurrection
If our flesh is not saved, then the Lord has not redeemed us with his blood, the eucharistic chalice does not make us sharers in his blood, and the bread we break does not make us sharers in his body. There can be no blood without veins, flesh and the rest of the human substance, and this the Word of God actually became: it was with his own blood that he redeemed us. As the Apostle says: In him, through his blood, we have been redeemed, our sins have been forgiven.
We are his members and we are nourished by creatures, which is his gift to us, for it is he who causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall. He declared that the chalice, which comes from his creation, was his blood, and he makes it the nourishment of our blood. He affirmed that the bread, which comes from his creation, was his body, and he makes it the nourishment of our body. When the chalice we mix and the bread we bake receive the word of God, the eucharistic elements become the body and blood of Christ, by which our bodies live and grow. How then can it be said that flesh belonging to the Lord’s own body and nourished by his body and blood is incapable of receiving God’s gift of eternal life? Saint Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians that we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones. He is not speaking of some spiritual and incorporeal kind of man, for spirits do not have flesh and bones. He is speaking of a real human body composed of flesh, sinews and bones, nourished by the chalice of Christ’s blood and receiving growth from the bread which is his body.
The slip of a vine planted in the ground bears fruit at the proper time. The grain of wheat falls into the ground and decays only to be raised up again and multiplied by the Spirit of God who sustains all things. The Wisdom of God places these things at the service of man and when they receive God’s word they become the eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ. In the same way our bodies, which have been nourished by the eucharist, will be buried in the earth and will decay, but they will rise again at the appointed time, for the Word of God will raise them up to the glory of God the Father. Then the Father will clothe our mortal nature in immortality and freely endow our corruptible nature with incorruptibility, for God’s power is shown most perfectly in weakness.
Responsory
℟. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead;* this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die, alleluia.
℣. I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;* this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die, alleluia.
________
Let us pray.
Almighty, ever-living God,
make our hearts more open to your love
in these days of Eastertide,
when you have made known to us the depth of that love.
You have rescued us from the darkness of error:
make us adhere more firmly to the teachings of your truth.
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.
________
Let us praise the Lord.
– Thanks be to God.
Copyright © 1996-2020 Universalis Publishing Limited: see www.universalis.com. Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible are published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. Text of the Psalms: Copyright © 1963, The Grail (England). Used with permission of A.P. Watt Ltd. All rights reserved.