Welcome to the ULC Minister's Network

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

Office of Readings


  • Monday 16 August 2021

    Monday of week 20 in Ordinary Time 
    or Saint Stephen of Hungary 


    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

    Come, Spirit blest, with God the Son
    and God the Father, ever one:
    shed forth your grace within our breast
    and live in us, a ready guest.

    By every power, by heart and tongue,
    by act and deed, your praise be sung.
    Inflame with perfect love each sense,
    that others’ souls may kindle thence.


    ________

    Psalm 72 (73):1-12
    Why should the just suffer?


    “Blessed is the man who does not lose faith in me” (Mt 11:6).

    How good God is to Israel, to those who are pure of heart.

    How good God is to Israel,
    to those who are pure of heart.
    Yet my feet came close to stumbling,
    my steps had almost slipped
    for I was filled with envy of the proud
    when I saw how the wicked prosper.

    For them there are no pains;
    their bodies are sound and sleek.
    They have no share in men’s sorrows;
    they are not stricken like others.

    So they wear their pride like a necklace,
    they clothe themselves with violence.
    Their hearts overflow with malice,
    their minds seethe with plots.

    They scoff; they speak with malice;
    from on high they plan oppression.
    They have set their mouths in the heavens
    and their tongues dictate to the earth.

    So the people turn to follow them
    and drink in all their words.
    They say: ‘How can God know?
    Does the Most High take any notice?’
    Look at them, such are the wicked,
    but untroubled, they grow in wealth.

    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.

    How good God is to Israel, to those who are pure of heart.


    ________

    Psalm 72 (73):13-20

    Their rejoicing will be turned to weeping, their joy to sorrow.

    How useless to keep my heart pure
    and wash my hands in innocence,
    when I was stricken all day long,
    suffered punishment day after day.

    Then I said: ‘If I should speak like that,
    I should abandon the faith of your people.’

    I strove to fathom this problem,
    too hard for my mind to understand,
    until I pierced the mysteries of God
    and understood what becomes of the wicked.

    How slippery the paths on which you set them;
    you make them slide to destruction.
    How suddenly they come to their ruin,
    wiped out, destroyed by terrors.
    Like a dream one wakes from, O Lord,
    when you wake you dismiss them as phantoms.

    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.

    Their rejoicing will be turned to weeping, their joy to sorrow.


    ________

    Psalm 72 (73):21-28

    All those who abandon you shall perish; but to be near God is my happiness.

    And so when my heart grew embittered
    and when I was cut to the quick,
    I was stupid and did not understand,
    no better than a beast in your sight.

    Yet I was always in your presence;
    you were holding me by my right hand.
    You will guide me by your counsel
    and so you will lead me to glory.

    What else have I in heaven but you?
    Apart from you I want nothing on earth.
    My body and my heart faint for joy;
    God is my possession for ever.

    All those who abandon you shall perish;
    you will destroy all those who are faithless.
    To be near God is my happiness.
    I have made the Lord God my refuge.
    I will tell of all your works
    at the gates of the city of Sion.

    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.

    All those who abandon you shall perish; but to be near God is my happiness.


    Psalm-prayer

    It is good to be with you, Father; in you is fullness of life for your faithful people; in you all hope resides. May you lead us to everlasting happiness.


    Or:

    In your wisdom, Father, you allowed your Son to be fearful and saddened at the prospect of his cross; death, the penalty of sin, was changed into glory by his death. Grant that on our journey to you the cross may not be a stumbling block but rather a beacon to guide us.


    ________

    ℣. Your promise is sweet to my taste, Lord.
    ℟. It is sweeter than honey in the mouth.


    ________


    Readings (official one-year cycle)

    First Reading
    Isaiah 3:1-15
    Reproaches against Jerusalem


    Yes, see how the Lord, the Lord of Hosts
    is taking from Jerusalem and Judah
    support of every kind
    (support of bread and support of water):
    hero, man-at-arms, judge, prophet,
    diviner, elder, captain, noble,
    counsellor, sorcerer, soothsayer.
    ‘I give them boys for princes, raw lads to rule over them.’
    The people bully each other,
    neighbour and neighbour;
    a youth can insult his elder,
    a lout abuse a noble,
    so that everyone tries to catch his brother
    in their father’s house, to say,
    ‘You have a cloak, so you be leader,
    and rule this heap of ruins.’

    When that day comes the other will protest,
    ‘I am no doctor,
    in my house is neither bread nor cloak;
    do not make me leader of the people.’
    Yes, Jerusalem is falling into ruins
    and Judah is in collapse,
    since their words and their deeds affront the Lord,
    insulting his glory.

    Their insolent airs bear witness against them,
    they parade their sin like Sodom.
    To their own undoing, they do not hide it,
    they are preparing their own downfall.

    Tell them, ‘Happy is the virtuous man,
    for he will feed on the fruit of his deeds;
    woe to the wicked, evil is on him,
    he will be treated as his actions deserve.’

    O my people, oppressed by a lad,
    ruled by women.
    O my people, your rulers mislead you
    and destroy the road you walk on.

    The Lord rises from his judgement seat,
    he stands up to arraign his people.
    The Lord calls to judgement
    the elders and the princes of his people:

    ‘You are the ones who destroy the vineyard
    and conceal what you have stolen from the poor.
    By what right do you crush my people
    and grind the faces of the poor?’
    It is the Lord, the Lord of Hosts who speaks.


    Responsory
    Is 3:10-11,13

    ℟. Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.* Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with them, for what their hands have done shall be done to them.
    ℣. The Lord has taken his place to contend, he stands to judge the peoples.* Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with them, for what their hands have done shall be done to them.


    ________

    Second Reading
    The Moral Reflections on Job by Pope St Gregory the Great
    Fights without and fears within

    The saints are caught up in a turbulent war of troubles, attacked at the same time by force and by persuasion. Patience is their shield against force, and doctrine makes the arrows that they shoot against persuasion.
    See the skill with which they prepare themselves for both fights. The perversity within, they straighten out and teach and correct. The adversity without, they face and endure and suppress. They despise the enemies that come from outside to attack them, they resist them and stop them from subverting others. But to the weak and feeble citizens within they give compassion, afraid that they might otherwise lose the life of righteousness completely.
    Let us look at St Paul, the soldier of God’s army, as he fights both enemies: as he says, quarrels outside, misgivings inside. He lists the enemies he has to resist: danger from rivers and danger from brigands, danger from my own people and danger from pagans, danger in the towns and danger in the open country, danger at sea and danger from so-called brothers. He lists the weapons he fires against them: I have worked and laboured, often without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty and often starving; I have been in the cold without clothes.
    In the middle of all these battles the army’s camp must still be patrolled and safeguarded: and, to leave out much more, there is my daily preoccupation: my anxiety for all the churches. You see how bravely he takes the war upon himself and how compassionately he devotes himself to keeping his neighbours safe. First he lists the evils he suffers, then he lists the good things he is giving.
    Let us ponder what a burden it is to endure attacks from outside and at the same time to give protection to the weak inside. From without, he suffers attack: he is beaten, he is chained. From within, he endures fear: the fear that his sufferings might discourage not him, but his disciples. So he writes to them: Let no-one be unsettled by the present troubles: as you know, they are bound to come our way. In the middle of his own sufferings, it was the downfall of others that he feared: if they saw him being beaten because of his faith, they might hold back from professing that faith themselves.
    What an immense love he has within him! He neglects what he himself is suffering and worries only that his disciples might suffer temptation because of it. He thinks nothing of the wounds of his body and he heals the wounds of other people’s hearts.
    This is something characteristic of the righteous. Just because they suffer pain themselves it does not stop them caring for the needs of others. They grieve for themselves and the adversity they face but they still give the needed teaching to others. They are like some great doctor who is struck down by sickness: they endure their own wounds while giving healing medicines to their patients.


    Responsory

    ℟. Lord, help me to face you openly; withdraw your chastising hand,* and let my dread of you no longer fill me with terror.
    ℣. Chasten me, Lord, but with due measure – not as your anger demands, or you will grind me to dust,* and let my dread of you no longer fill me with terror.


    ________

    Let us pray.

    Lord God,
    you have prepared for those who love you
    what no eye has seen, no ear has heard.
    Fill our hearts with your love,
    so that, loving you above all and in all,
    we may attain your promises
    which the heart of man has not conceived.
    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.


    ________

    Let us praise the Lord.
    – Thanks be to God.


    Copyright © 1996-2021 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.

     

0 comments