Tuesday 21 July 2020
Tuesday of week 16 in Ordinary Time
or Saint Laurence of Brindisi, Priest, Doctor
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
This hymn, whose author is unknown (but it has been attributed to Alcuin [†804]), was written in the 8th or 9th century. It invites us to honour God through watchfulness and the praying of the psalms during our life on earth so as to sing his glory afterwards in heaven.
Nocte surgéntes vigilémus omnes,
semper in psalmis meditémur atque
víribus totis Dómino canámus
dúlciter hymnos,
Ut, pio regi páriter canéntes,
cum suis sanctis mereámur aulam
íngredi cæli, simul et beátam
dúcere vitam.
Præstet hoc nobis Déitas Beáta
Patris ac Nati, paritérque Sancti
Spíritus, cuius résonat per omnem
glória mundum. Amen.
Rising in the night, let us all keep watch;
Let us always meditate on the psalms and
With all our strength let us sing sweetly
Hymns to the Lord,
So that, singing still to our godly king,
We may merit, with his holy ones,
To enter the court of heaven and, at once,
Lead a blessed life.
May the blessed Godhead of the Father
And of the Son, and likewise of the Holy Spirit,
Whose glory echoes through the whole world
Grant us this. Amen.
________
Psalm 101 (102)
Prayers and vows of an exile
“God comforts us in all our sorrows” (2 Cor 1:4).
Let my cry come to you, Lord: do not hide your face from me.
O Lord, listen to my prayer
and let my cry for help reach you.
Do not hide your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Turn your ear towards me
and answer me quickly when I call.
For my days are vanishing like smoke,
my bones burn away like a fire.
My heart is withered like the grass.
I forget to eat my bread.
I cry with all my strength
and my skin clings to my bones.
I have become like a pelican in the wilderness
like an owl in desolate places.
I lie awake and I moan
like some lonely bird on a roof.
All day long my foes revile me;
those who hate me use my name as a curse.
The bread I eat is ashes;
my drink is mingled with tears.
In your anger, Lord, and your fury
you have lifted me up and thrown me down.
My days are like a passing shadow
and I wither away like the grass.
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.
Let my cry come to you, Lord: do not hide your face from me.
________
Psalm 101 (102)
Turn, Lord, to the prayers of the helpless.
But you, O Lord, will endure for ever
and your name from age to age.
You will arise and have mercy on Sion:
for this is the time to have mercy,
(yes, the time appointed has come)
for your servants love her very stones,
are moved with pity even for her dust.
The nations shall fear the name of the Lord
and all the earth’s kings your glory,
when the Lord shall build up Sion again
and appear in all his glory.
Then he will turn to the prayers of the helpless;
he will not despise their prayers.
Let this be written for ages to come
that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord;
for the Lord leaned down from his sanctuary on high.
He looked down from heaven to the earth
that he might hear the groans of the prisoners
and free those condemned to die.
The sons of your servants shall dwell untroubled
and their race shall endure before you,
that the name of the Lord may be proclaimed in Sion
and his praise in the heart of Jerusalem,
when peoples and kingdoms are gathered together
to pay their homage to the Lord.
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.
Turn, Lord, to the prayers of the helpless.
________
Psalm 101 (102)
You founded the earth, Lord, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
He has broken my strength in mid-course;
he has shortened the days of my life.
I say to God: ‘Do not take me away
before my days are complete,
you, whose days last from age to age.
‘Long ago you founded the earth
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish but you will remain.
They will all wear out like a garment.
You will change them like clothes that are changed.
But you neither change, nor have an end.’
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.
You founded the earth, Lord, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
Psalm-prayer
Lord, you live in the hearts of your saints, and so have built up Zion. May you always show your greatness through their good works.
Or:
You remain for ever, Father, undisturbed by change, while our days vanish like shadows and our lives wear out like a garment. Although our lives in this world come to an end, help us to live in Christ’s endless life, and so attain the heavenly Jerusalem, our lasting home.
________
℣. Give heed, my people, to my teaching.
℟. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
________
Readings (official one-year cycle)
First Reading
2 Corinthians 2:12-3:6
Paul, minister of the New Covenant
When I went up to Troas to preach the Good News of Christ, and the door was wide open for my work there in the Lord, I was so continually uneasy in mind at not meeting brother Titus there, I said good-bye to them and went on to Macedonia.
Thanks be to God who, wherever he goes, makes us, in Christ, partners of his triumph, and through us is spreading the knowledge of himself, like a sweet smell, everywhere. We are Christ’s incense to God for those who are being saved and for those who are not; for the last, the smell of death that leads to death, for the first the sweet smell of life that leads to life. And who could be qualified for work like this? At least we do not go round offering the word of God for sale, as many other people do. In Christ, we speak as men of sincerity, as envoys of God and in God’s presence.
Does this sound like a new attempt to commend ourselves to you? Unlike other people, we need no letters of recommendation either to you or from you, because you are yourselves our letter, written in our hearts, that anybody can see and read, and it is plain that you are a letter from Christ, drawn up by us, and written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on the tablets of your living hearts.
Before God, we are confident of this through Christ: not that we are qualified in ourselves to claim anything as our own work: all our qualifications come from God. He is the one who has given us the qualifications to be the administrators of this new covenant, which is not a covenant of written letters but of the Spirit: the written letters bring death, but the Spirit gives life.
Responsory
2 Co 3:4-6
℟. Through Christ, we have confidence in God;* and through Christ we have been made capable of serving the new covenant, which consists not of a written law but of the Spirit.
℣. There is nothing in us which can justify a claim that we are capable of doing this work. What capacity we have comes from God,* and through Christ we have been made capable of serving the new covenant, which consists not of a written law but of the Spirit.
________
Second Reading
From St Ignatius of Antioch's letter to the Magnesians
You have Jesus Christ within you
Let us not fail to be moved by his goodness, for if he were ever to imitate the way we behave ourselves, we would be truly lost. Now that we are his disciples let us learn to lead Christian lives. Whoever does not take the name of Christian does not belong to God. Put aside the old worn-out leaven which has grown old and sour, and turn to the new leaven, which is Jesus Christ. Be preserved by the salt of Christ so that you do not decay; for it is by your odour that you will be judged. It is monstrous to talk of Jesus Christ and to practise Judaism. For the Christian faith does not look to Judaism, but Judaism looks to Christianity, in which everyone who believes in God has been brought together.
Now I say this, beloved, not because I know that there are any of you that are thus, but because I wish to warn you, though I am less than you, not to fall into the snare of vain doctrine. Be convinced of the birth and passion and resurrection which took place at the time of the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate; for these things were truly and certainly done by Jesus Christ, our hope, from which God grant that none of you be turned aside.
My desire is to enjoy every happiness in you, if only I can be found worthy. Even though I am in chains and you are not, I am still unfit to be compared to you. I know that you are free from pride, for you have Jesus Christ in yourselves. Even when I praise you, you are not proud but embarrassed. As Scripture says, The righteous man is his own accuser.
Do your utmost to stand firm in the precepts of the Lord and the Apostles, so that you may prosper in all that you do in the flesh and in the spirit, in faith and love, in the Son and the Father and the Spirit, at the beginning and at the end, together with your revered bishop and with your clergy (that beautifully woven spiritual crown) and with the godly deacons. Be subject to the bishop and to one another, even as Jesus Christ was subject to the Father, and the Apostles were subject to Christ and to the Father, so that there may be complete unity of both flesh and spirit.
I have kept my exhortation brief because I know how God fills you. Remember me in your prayers, so that I may win through to God, and remember the Church in Syria, of which I am not worthy to be called a member. For I need your united prayers and love in God so that the Church in Syria may draw refreshment from the dew of your Church.
I am writing this from Smyrna and the Ephesians here send you their greeting. They, like you, are here for the glory of God and have in all things given me comfort, as has Polycarp, the bishop of the Smyrnaeans. The other Churches also greet you in honour of Jesus Christ.
Farewell. See that there is a godly unity among you and an unhesitating spirit; for this is Jesus Christ.
Responsory
℟. God grant that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.* Then, being rooted and grounded in love, you will be filled with all the fullness of God.
℣. Live in Christ; rooted in him, built up on him, and established firmly in the faith.* Then, being rooted and grounded in love, you will be filled with all the fullness of God.
________
Let us pray.
Be gracious, Lord, to us who serve you,
and in your kindness increase your gifts of grace within us:
so that, fervent in faith, hope and love,
we may be ever on the watch
and persevere in doing what you command.
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.