O Lord, open our lips.
And we shall praise your name.
Invitatory Psalm
Psalm 99 (100)
Let us rejoice in the Lord,
with songs let us praise him.
Rejoice in the Lord, all the earth,
and serve him with joy.
Exult as you enter his presence.
Let us rejoice in the Lord,
with songs let us praise him.
Know that the Lord is God.
He made us and we are his
– his people, the sheep of his flock.
Let us rejoice in the Lord,
with songs let us praise him.
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 rejoice in the Lord,
with songs let us praise him.
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 rejoice in the Lord,
with songs let us praise him.
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)
Why should the just suffer?
How good God is to Israel,
to those who are pure of heart.
How good God is to the upright,
to those who are pure of heart!
But as for me, my feet nearly stumbled,
my steps were on the point of going astray,
as I envied the boasters and sinners,
envied their comfort and peace.
For them there are no burdens,
their bellies are full and sleek.
They do not labour, like ordinary men;
they do not suffer, like mortals.
They wear their pride like a necklace,
their violence covers them like a robe.
Wickedness oozes from their very being,
the thoughts of their hearts break forth:
they deride, they utter abominations,
and from their heights they proclaim injustice.
They have set their mouth in the heavens,
and their tongue traverses the earth.
Thus they sit in their lofty positions,
and the flood-waters cannot reach them.
They ask, “How can God know?
Does the Most High have any understanding?”
Behold, then, the wicked, always prosperous:
their riches growing 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.
How good God is to Israel,
to those who are pure of heart.
Psalm 72 (73)
Their rejoicing will be turned to weeping,
their joy to sorrow.
I said, “It was pointless to purify my heart,
to wash my hands in innocence –
for still I suffered all through the day,
still I was punished every morning.”
If I had said, “I will speak like them,”
I would have betrayed the race of your children.
I pondered and tried to understand:
my eyes labored to see –
until I entered God’s holy place
and heard how they would end.
For indeed you have put them on a slippery surface
and have thrown them down in ruin.
How they are laid waste!
How suddenly they fall and perish in terror!
You spurn the sight of them, Lord,
as a dream is abandoned when the sleeper awakes.
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)
All those who abandon you shall perish;
but to be near God is my happiness.
My heart was sore, my being was troubled –
I was a fool, I knew nothing;
I was like a dumb beast before you.
But still I stay with you:
you hold my right hand.
You lead me according to your counsel,
until you raise me up in glory.
For who else is for me, in heaven?
On earth, I want nothing when I am with you.
My flesh and heart are failing,
but it is God that I love:
God is my portion for ever.
Behold, those who abandon you will perish:
you have condemned all who go whoring away from you.
But for myself, I take joy in clinging to God,
in putting my trust in the Lord, my God,
to proclaim your works at the gates of the daughters of Zion.
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.
How sweet is the taste of your sayings, O Lord,
– sweeter than honey in my mouth.
First Reading
Isaiah 3:1-15
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,
neighbor and neighbor;
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
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 labored, 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 neighbors 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 and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Let us praise the Lord.
– Thanks be to God.
