O Lord, open my lips.
And my mouth will proclaim your praise.
Invitatory Psalm
Psalm 99 (100)
Let us listen for the Lord’s voice, so that we can reach his place of rest.
– Let us listen for the Lord’s voice, so that we can reach his place of rest.
Rejoice in the Lord, all the earth,
and serve him with joy.
Exult as you enter his presence.
– Let us listen for the Lord’s voice, so that we can reach his place of rest.
Know that the Lord is God.
He made us and we are his
– his people, the sheep of his flock.
– Let us listen for the Lord’s voice, so that we can reach his place of rest.
Cry out his praises as you enter his gates,
fill his courtyards with songs.
Proclaim him and bless his name;
for the Lord is our delight.
His mercy lasts for ever,
his faithfulness through all the ages.
– Let us listen for the Lord’s voice, so that we can reach his place of rest.
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 us listen for the Lord’s voice, so that we can reach his place of rest.
Hymn
Great God of boundless mercy, hear!
Thou Ruler of this earthly sphere;
In substance one, in Persons three,
Dread Trinity in Unity!
Do thou in love accept our lays
Of mingled penitence and praise;
And set our hearts from error free,
More fully to rejoice in thee.
Our reins and hearts in pity heal,
And with thy chastening fires anneal;
Gird thou our loins, each passion quell,
And every harmful lust expel.
Now as our anthems, upward borne,
Awake the silence of the morn,
Enrich us with thy gifts of grace,
From heaven, thy blissful dwelling place!
Hear thou our prayer, almighty King;
Hear thou our praises, while we sing,
Adoring with the heavenly host
The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
A paschal hymn
Psalm 135 (136)
The Lord alone performs great wonders: his mercy lasts for ever.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his love is for ever.
Give thanks to the God of gods,
for his love is for ever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his love is for ever.
He alone works wonders,
for his love is for ever.
In his wisdom he made the heavens,
for his love is for ever.
He set the Earth upon the waters,
for his love is for ever.
He created the great lights,
for his love is for ever.
The sun, to rule over the day,
for his love is for ever.
The moon and stars, to rule over the night,
for his love is for ever.
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.
The Lord alone performs great wonders: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalm 135 (136)
With a strong hand and an outstretched arm he led Israel out from the midst of Egypt.
He struck down the first-born of Egypt,
for his love is for ever.
He led Israel out from their midst,
for his love is for ever.
With a strong hand and an outstretched arm,
for his love is for ever.
He divided the Red Sea in two,
for his love is for ever.
He led Israel out through the sea,
for his love is for ever.
He overthrew Pharaoh and his army,
for his love is for ever.
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.
With a strong hand and an outstretched arm he led Israel out from the midst of Egypt.
Psalm 135 (136)
Give thanks to the Lord of heaven: he has rescued us from our enemies.
He led his people through the wilderness,
for his love is for ever.
He struck down great kings,
for his love is for ever.
Sihon, king of the Amorites,
for his love is for ever.
And Og, the king of Bashan,
for his love is for ever.
He gave their land to his people,
for his love is for ever.
A heritage for Israel his servant,
for his love is for ever.
He remembered us in our affliction,
for his love is for ever.
He rescued us from our enemies,
for his love is for ever.
He gives food to all creatures that live,
for his love is for ever.
Give thanks to the God of heaven,
for his love is for ever.
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.
Give thanks to the Lord of heaven: he has rescued us from our enemies.
Lord, show me your ways,
– and teach me your paths.
Reading
Ecclesiasticus 47:14-31
A wise son succeeded David,
who lived spaciously, thanks to him.
Solomon reigned in a time of peace,
and God gave him peace all round
so that he could raise a house to his name
and prepare an everlasting sanctuary.
How wise you were in your youth,
brimming over with understanding like a river!
Your mind ranged the earth,
you filled it with mysterious sayings.
Your name reached the distant islands,
and you were loved for your peace.
Your songs, your proverbs, your sayings
and your retorts made you the wonder of the world.
In the name of the Lord God,
of him who is called the God of Israel,
you amassed gold like so much tin,
and made silver as common as lead.
You abandoned your body to women,
you became the slave of your appetites.
You stained your honour,
you profaned your stock,
so bringing wrath on your children
and grief on your posterity:
the sovereignty was split in two,
from Ephraim arose a rebel kingdom.
But the Lord would not go back on his mercy,
or undo any of his words,
he would not obliterate the issue of his elect,
nor destroy the stock of the man who loved him;
and so he granted a remnant to Jacob,
and to David a root springing from him.
Solomon rested with his ancestors,
leaving one of his stock as his successor,
the stupidest member of the nation,
brainless Rehoboam, whose policy drove the nation to rebel.
Next, Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel sin,
and set Ephraim on the way of evil;
from then on their sins multiplied so excessively
as to drive them out of their country;
for they tried out every kind of wickedness,
until vengeance overtook them.
Responsory
I will gather the sons of Israel from all sides, and they shall no longer be two nations nor defile themselves any more with their idols: they shall be my people, and they shall all have one shepherd.
I have other sheep that are not of this fold, whom I must bring in. There shall be one flock, one shepherd: they shall be my people, and they shall all have one shepherd.
Reading
From a discourse of St Augustine on the Psalms
The true Solomon is our Lord Jesus Christ
Because Solomon had built a temple to the Lord – a prototype and an image of the future Church, the Lord’s body, which is why the Gospel says Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up – because the Solomon of history had built that temple, our Lord Jesus Christ, the true Solomon, built a temple for himself. The name ‘Solomon’ means ‘Bringer of Peace’, and our Lord, the true Solomon, is the true bringer of peace, which is why the Apostle says He is our peace, who has made both into one. He is the true bringer of peace, who has taken two walls coming from different directions and joined them through himself, becoming the cornerstone that unites them: the believers who come from the people of the circumcision and the believers who come from the uncircumcised. He has made one Church from the two peoples, he has become their cornerstone and their peacemaker.
So because the historical Solomon, son of David and Bathsheba, king of Israel, was prefiguring this peacemaker when he built the Temple, Scripture takes care that you should not think that he himself was the peacemaker. Scripture shows you another Solomon, by beginning a psalm with the words, Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. So the Lord builds the house, the Lord Jesus Christ builds a house for himself. Many labour to build it, but if he is not the architect, in vain have its builders laboured.
Who are they who work at building it? They are everyone in the Church who preaches the word of God or administers the sacraments of God. We all rush around, we all labour, we all build; and before us, others rushed, laboured, built; but unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. For this reason, when they saw some of the people fall, the Apostles, and Paul himself, said: You and your special days and months and seasons and years! You make me feel I have wasted my time with you. Because he knew that he had been built up by the Lord from within, he wept over these others because he had worked among them to no avail.
We speak in public, but he builds inside. How well do you listen? We can tell. What do you think of it? He alone knows, who sees your thoughts. It is he who builds, he who gives advice, he who instils fear, he who opens the understanding, he who directs your perceptions and leads you to faith; and yet we too work, as labourers in the harvest.
Responsory
When the temple was completed, the glory of the Lord filled the temple court, and the king, overcome with joy, exclaimed: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for all his promises to David my father.
Destroy this temple and in three days I will rebuild it. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for all his promises to David my father.
O God, the world had fallen flat in the dust but your Son’s humility stood it upright once more.
Fill your faithful people with a holy joy:
take those whom you have torn away from slavery to sin
and make them rejoice eternally.
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.
