O Lord, open my lips.
And my mouth will proclaim your praise.
Invitatory Psalm
Psalm 23 (24)
The Lord’s is the earth and its fulness: come, let us worship.
– The Lord’s is the earth and its fulness: come, let us worship.
The Lord’s is the earth and its fullness,
the world and all who live in it.
He himself founded it upon the seas
and set it firm over the waters.
– The Lord’s is the earth and its fulness: come, let us worship.
Who will climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who will stand in his holy place?
The one who is innocent of wrongdoing and pure of heart,
who has not given himself to vanities or sworn falsely.
He will receive the blessing of the Lord
and be justified by God his saviour.
This is the way of those who seek him,
seek the face of the God of Jacob.
– The Lord’s is the earth and its fulness: come, let us worship.
Gates, raise your heads. Stand up, eternal doors,
and let the king of glory enter.
Who is the king of glory?
The Lord of might and power.
The Lord, strong in battle.
– The Lord’s is the earth and its fulness: come, let us worship.
Gates, raise your heads. Stand up, eternal doors,
and let the king of glory enter.
Who is the king of glory?
The Lord of hosts
– he is the king of glory.
– The Lord’s is the earth and its fulness: come, let us worship.
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’s is the earth and its fulness: come, let us worship.
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.
Thanksgiving after rescue
Psalm 106 (107)
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness, for the wonders he works for men.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his kindness is for ever.
Let them say this, the people the Lord has redeemed,
those whom he rescued from their enemies
whom he gathered together from all lands,
from east and west, from the north and the south.
They wandered through desert and wilderness,
they could find no way to a city they could dwell in.
Their souls were weary within them,
weary from hunger and thirst.
They cried to the Lord in their trouble
and he rescued them from their distress.
He set them on the right path
towards a city they could dwell in.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness,
for the wonders he works for men:
the Lord, who feeds hungry creatures
and gives water to the thirsty to drink.
They sat in the darkness and shadow of death,
imprisoned in chains and in misery,
because they had rebelled against the words of God
and spurned the counsels of the Most High.
He wore out their hearts with labour:
they were weak, there was no-one to help.
They cried to the Lord in their trouble
and he rescued them from their distress.
He led them out of the darkness and shadow of death,
he shattered their chains.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness,
for the wonders he works for men:
the Lord, who shatters doors of bronze,
who breaks bars of iron.
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 them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness, for the wonders he works for men.
Psalm 106 (107)
They have seen the works of the Lord and the wonders he performs.
The people were sick because they transgressed,
afflicted because of their sins.
All food was distasteful to them,
they were on the verge of death.
They cried to the Lord in their trouble
and he rescued them from their distress.
He sent forth his word and healed them,
delivered them from their ruin.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness,
for the wonders he works for men:
Let them offer a sacrifice of praise
and proclaim his works with rejoicing.
Those who go down to the sea in ships,
those who trade across the great waters –
they have seen the works of the Lord,
the wonders he performs in the deep.
He spoke, and a storm arose,
and the waves of the sea rose up.
They rose up as far as the heavens
and descended down to the depths:
the sailors’ hearts melted from fear,
they staggered and reeled like drunkards,
terror drove them out of their minds.
But they cried to the Lord in their trouble
and he rescued them from their distress.
He turned the storm into a breeze
and silenced the waves.
They rejoiced at the ending of the storm
and he led them to the port that they wanted.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness,
for the wonders he works for men:
let them exalt him in the assembly of the people,
give him praise in the council of the elders.
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.
They have seen the works of the Lord and the wonders he performs.
Psalm 106 (107)
The upright shall see and be glad, and understand the mercies of the Lord.
The Lord has turned rivers into wilderness,
he has made well-watered lands into desert,
fruitful ground into salty waste
because of the evil of those who dwelt there.
But he has made wilderness into ponds,
deserts into the sources of rivers,
he has called together the hungry
and they have founded a city to dwell in.
They have sowed the fields, planted the vines;
they grow and harvest their produce.
He has blessed them and they have multiplied;
he does not let their cattle decrease.
But those others became few and oppressed
through trouble, evil, and sorrow.
He poured his contempt on their princes
and set them to wander the trackless waste.
But the poor he has saved from their poverty
and their families grow numerous as sheep.
The upright shall see, and be glad,
and all wickedness shall block up its mouth.
Whoever is wise will remember these things
and understand the mercies of 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.
The upright shall see and be glad, and understand the mercies of the Lord.
Lord, your faithfulness reaches up to the clouds.
– Your judgements reach down to the depths.
Reading
1 Maccabees 9:1-22
Demetrius heard that Nicanor and his army had fallen in battle, and he sent Bacchides and Alcimus a second time into the land of Judah, and with them the right wing of his army. They took the road to Galilee and besieged Mesaloth in Arbela, and captured it, putting many people to death. In the first month of the year one hundred and fifty-two they set up camp before Jerusalem; they then moved on, making their way to Beerzeth with twenty thousand foot and two thousand horse. Judas lay in camp at Elasa, with three thousand picked men. When they saw the huge size of the enemy forces they were terrified, and many slipped out of the camp, until no more than eight hundred of the force were left. When Judas saw that his army had melted away and that attack was imminent, he was aghast, for he had no time to rally them. Yet, dismayed as he was, he said to those who were left, ‘Up! Let us face the enemy; we may yet have the strength to fight them.’ His men tried to dissuade him, declaring, ‘We have no strength for anything but to escape with our lives this time; then we can come back with our brothers to fight them; by ourselves we are too few.’ ‘God forbid’ Judas retorted ‘that I should do such a thing as run away from them! If our time has come, at least let us die like men for our countrymen, and leave nothing to tarnish our reputation.’
The enemy forces then marched out of the camp, and the Jews took up their position in readiness to engage them. The cavalry was ordered into two squadrons; the slingers and archers marched in the van of the army with the shock-troops, all stout fighters; Bacchides was on the right wing. The phalanx advanced from between the two squadrons, sounding the trumpets; the men on Judas’ side blew their trumpets also, and the earth shook with the noise of the armies. The engagement lasted from morning until evening.
Judas saw that Bacchides and the main strength of his army lay on the right; all the stout-hearted rallied to him, and they broke the right wing and pursued them to the furthest foothills of the range. But when the Syrians on the left wing saw that the right had been broken, they turned and followed hot on the heels of Judas and his men to take them in the rear. The fight became desperate, and there were many casualties on both sides. Judas himself fell, and the remnant fled.
Jonathan and Simon took up their brother Judas and buried him in his ancestral tomb at Modein. All Israel wept and mourned him deeply and for many days they repeated this dirge, ‘What a downfall for the strong man, the man who saved Israel single-handed!’ The other deeds of Judas, the battles he fought, the exploits he performed, and all his titles to greatness have not been recorded; but they were very many.
Responsory
Do not be daunted by an enemy attack: remember how our fathers were saved. Let us besiege heaven with our prayers and our God will have mercy on us.
Remember the wonders he worked against Pharaoh and his army at the Red Sea. Let us besiege heaven with our prayers and our God will have mercy on us.
Reading
St Ambrose, On The Blessing of Death
On the blessing of death
St Paul says, The world is crucified to me, and I to the world. Then he tells us that he means death in this life, and a good death: We carry with us in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of our Lord Jesus, too, may always be seen in our body.
Let death do its work in us, therefore, so that life may do its work also: a good life after death, that is, a good life after victory, after the battle is over, when the law of the flesh is no longer in conflict with the law of the mind, when we have no more battles with mortal flesh but in mortal flesh we have victory. I wonder if this death might not have more power in it than life. St Paul’s authority certainly suggests it when he says Death works in us but life in you.
One man’s death has laid the foundations of life for so many people! And so St Paul teaches that we should seek that death in this life, so that Christ’s death should shine out in our bodies. That blessed death, in which our outer nature falls away and our inner nature is renewed, and our earthly dwelling is dissolved so that our heavenly home is laid open to us.
A man imitates this death when he drags himself away from being part of this flesh and breaks those chains that the Lord had spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: Break unjust fetters, undo the thongs of the yoke, let the oppressed go free, and break every unjust constraint.
It was to put an end to guilt that the Lord permitted death to come into the world; but so that human nature should not end up perishing by death instead of guilt, the resurrection of the dead was given us. By death, guilt would be ended, and by resurrection, human nature would be eternal.
And thus this death is a journey for everyone. You must always be journeying: from decay to incorruptibility, from mortality to immortality, from turbulence to peace. Do not be alarmed by the word ‘death’ but rejoice at the good that the journey will bring. For what is death except the burial of vice and the raising up of virtue? Hence Scripture says, May I die the death of the just – that is, may I be buried with them, put down my vices, and put on the grace of the just, who carry the mortification of Christ around in their bodies and their souls.
Responsory
Here are words you may trust: If we died with him, we shall live with him; if we endure, we shall reign with him.
The patient man will hold out until the end, but then his joy will break out; if we endure, we shall reign with him.
Let us pray.
Almighty and compassionate God, it is by your gift that your faithful are able to serve you as they ought.
Grant that we may hasten towards the joys you have promised
and not stumble or sin on the way.
We make our prayer 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.
