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Arch Bishop Micheal Ralph Vendegna S.O.S.M.A.

Liturgy of the Hours


  • Friday 18 December 2020

    18 December


    Afternoon Prayer (None)


    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.


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    Hymn

    Eternal Father, loving God,
    Who made us from the dust of earth,
    Transform us by the Spirit’s grace,
    Give value to our little worth.

    Prepare us for that day of days
    When Christ from heaven will come with might
    To call us out of dust again,
    Our bodies glorified in light.

    O Godhead, here untouched, unseen,
    All things created bear your trace;
    The seed of glory sown in man
    Will flower when we see your face.

    Stanbrook Abbey Hymnal

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    PSALMS OF THE DAY

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    Psalm 21 (22)
    The just man suffers; the Lord hears him


    “Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’” (Mt 27:46).

    Mary was greatly troubled at this greeting and wondered what it might mean. She said, ‘I am to give birth to a King without ceasing to be a virgin.’

    My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    You are far from my plea and the cry of my distress.
    O my God, I call by day and you give no reply;
    I call by night and I find no peace.

    Yet you, O God, are holy,
    enthroned on the praises of Israel.
    In you our fathers put their trust;
    they trusted and you set them free.
    When they cried to you, they escaped.
    In you they trusted and never in vain.

    But I am a worm and no man,
    scorned by men, despised by the people.
    All who see me deride me.
    They curl their lips, they toss their heads.
    ‘He trusted in the Lord, let him save him;
    let him release him if this is his friend.’

    Yes, it was you who took me from the womb,
    entrusted me to my mother’s breast.
    To you I was committed from my birth,
    from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
    Do not leave me alone in my distress;
    come close, there is none else to help.

    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.


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    Psalm 21 (22)

    Many bulls have surrounded me,
    fierce bulls of Bashan close me in.
    Against me they open wide their jaws,
    like lions, rending and roaring.

    Like water I am poured out,
    disjointed are all my bones.
    My heart has become like wax,
    it is melted within my breast.

    Parched as burnt clay is my throat,
    my tongue cleaves to my jaws.

    Many dogs have surrounded me,
    a band of the wicked beset me.
    They tear holes in my hands and my feet
    and lay me in the dust of death.

    I can count every one of my bones.
    These people stare at me and gloat;
    they divide my clothing among them.
    They cast lots for my robe.

    O Lord, do not leave me alone,
    my strength, make haste to help me!
    Rescue my soul from the sword,
    my life from the grip of these dogs.
    Save my life from the jaws of these lions,
    my poor soul from the horns of these oxen.

    I will tell of your name to my brethren
    and praise you where they are assembled.

    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.


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    Psalm 21 (22)

    ‘You who fear the Lord give him praise;
    all sons of Jacob, give him glory.
    Revere him, Israel’s sons.

    ‘For he has never despised
    nor scorned the poverty of the poor.
    From him he has not hidden his face,
    but he heard the poor man when he cried.’

    You are my praise in the great assembly.
    My vows I will pay before those who fear him.
    The poor shall eat and shall have their fill.
    They shall praise the Lord, those who seek him.
    May their hearts live for ever and ever!

    All the earth shall remember and return to the Lord,
    all families of the nations worship before him;
    for the kingdom is the Lord’s, he is ruler of the nations.
    They shall worship him, all the mighty of the earth;
    before him shall bow all who go down to the dust.

    And my soul shall live for him, my children serve him.
    They shall tell of the Lord to generations yet to come,
    declare his faithfulness to peoples yet unborn:
    ‘These things the Lord has done.’

    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.

    Mary was greatly troubled at this greeting and wondered what it might mean. She said, ‘I am to give birth to a King without ceasing to be a virgin.’


    Psalm-prayer

    Father, when your Son was handed over to torture and seemed abandoned by you, he cried out to you from the cross and death was destroyed, life was restored. By his death and resurrection, may we see the day when the poor man is saved, the downtrodden is lifted up and the chains that bind peoples are broken. United to the thanks that Christ gives you, your Church will sing your praises.


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    Short Reading
    (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10)

    God will very rightly reward you, who are suffering now, with the same peace as he will give us, when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven with the angels of his power, when he comes to be glorified among his saints and seen in his glory by all who believe in him.


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    ℣. Come, Lord, and make no delay.
    ℟. Release your people from their sin.


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    Let us pray.

    By the long-awaited coming of your new-born Son
    deliver us, Lord,
    from the age-old bondage of sin.
    Through Christ our Lord.
    Amen.


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    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.