Friday 24 April 2020
Friday of the 2nd week of Eastertide
or Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Priest, Martyr
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
Love’s redeeming work is done,
fought the fight, the battle won.
Lo, our Sun’s eclipse is o’er!
Lo, he sets in blood no more!
Vain the stone, the watch, the seal!
Christ has burst the gates of hell;
death in vain forbids him rise;
Christ has opened paradise.
Lives again our victor King;
where, O death, is now thy sting?
Dying once, he all doth save;
where thy victory, O grave?
Soar we now where Christ has led,
following our exalted Head;
made like him, like him we rise,
ours the cross, the grave, the skies.
Hail the Lord of earth and heaven!
Praise to thee by both be given:
thee we greet triumphant now;
hail, the Resurrection thou!
________
Psalm 37 (38)
The plea of a sinner in great peril
“All his friends stood at a distance” (Lk 23:49).
Do not punish me, Lord, in your rage.
O Lórd, do not rebúke me in your ánger; *
do not púnish me, Lórd, in your ráge.
Your árrows have sunk déep in mé; *
your hánd has come dówn upón me.
Through your ánger all my bódy is síck: *
through my sín, there is no héalth in my límbs.
My gúilt towers hígher than my héad; *
it is a wéight too héavy to béar.
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.
Do not punish me, Lord, in your rage.
________
Psalm 37 (38)
O Lord, you know all my longing. Alleluia.
My wóunds are fóul and féstering, *
the resúlt of my ówn fólly.
I am bówed and bróught to my knées. *
I go móurning áll the day lóng.
All my fráme búrns with féver; *
áll my bódy is síck.
Spént and útterly crúshed, *
I cry alóud in ánguish of héart.
O Lórd, you knów all my lónging: *
my gróans are not hídden from yóu.
My heart thróbs, my stréngth is spént; *
the very líght has góne from my éyes.
My fríends avóid me like a léper; *
those clósest to me stánd afar óff.
Those who plót against my lífe lay snáres; †
those who séek my rúin speak of hárm, *
planning tréachery áll the day lóng.
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.
O Lord, you know all my longing. Alleluia.
________
Psalm 37 (38)
I confess my guilt to you, Lord; do not forsake me, my saviour. Alleluia.
But Í am like the déaf who cannot héar, *
like the dúmb unáble to spéak.
Í am like a mán who hears nóthing *
in whose móuth is nó defénce.
I cóunt on yóu, O Lórd: *
it is yóu, Lord Gód, who will ánswer.
I práy: ‘Do not lét them móck me, *
those who tríumph if my fóot should slíp.’
For Í am on the póint of fálling *
and my páin is álways befóre me.
I conféss that Í am gúilty *
and my sín fílls me with dismáy.
My wánton énemies are númberless *
and my lýing fóes are mány.
They repáy me évil for góod *
and attáck me for séeking what is ríght.
O Lórd, dó not forsáke me! *
My Gód, do not stáy afar óff!
Make háste and cóme to my hélp, *
O Lórd, my Gód, my sáviour!
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.
I confess my guilt to you, Lord; do not forsake me, my saviour. Alleluia.
Psalm-prayer
Do not abandon us, Lord our God; you did not forget the broken body of your Christ, nor the mockery his love received. We, your children, are weighed down with sin; give us the fullness of your mercy.
________
℣. Heaven and earth rejoice, O Christ, alleluia.
℟. Because you have risen from the dead, alleluia.
________
Readings (official one-year cycle)
First Reading
Apocalypse 4:1-11
He was, he is, and he is to come
In my vision, I, John, saw a door open in heaven and heard the same voice speaking to me, the voice like a trumpet, saying, ‘Come up here: I will show you what is to come in the future.’ With that, the Spirit possessed me and I saw a throne standing in heaven, and the One who was sitting on the throne, and the Person sitting there looked like a diamond and a ruby. There was a rainbow encircling the throne, and this looked like an emerald. Round the throne in a circle were twenty-four thrones, and on them I saw twenty-four elders sitting, dressed in white robes with golden crowns on their heads. Flashes of lightning were coming from the throne, and the sound of peals of thunder, and in front of the throne there were seven flaming lamps burning, the seven Spirits of God. Between the throne and myself was a sea that seemed to be made of glass, like crystal. In the centre, grouped round the throne itself, were four animals with many eyes, in front and behind. The first animal was like a lion, the second like a bull, the third animal had a human face, and the fourth animal was like a flying eagle. Each of the four animals had six wings and had eyes all the way round as well as inside; and day and night they never stopped singing:
‘Holy, Holy, Holy
is the Lord God, the Almighty;
he was, he is and he is to come.’
Every time the animals glorified and honoured and gave thanks to the One sitting on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders prostrated themselves before him to worship the One who lives for ever and ever, and threw down their crowns in front of the throne, saying, ‘You are our Lord and our God, you are worthy of glory and honour and power, because you made all the universe and it was only by your will that everything was made and exists.’
Responsory
Rv 4:8; Is 6:3
℟. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come.* His glory fills the whole earth, alleluia.
℣. The seraphim cried to one another in this way: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.* His glory fills the whole earth, alleluia.
________
Second Reading
From a sermon by Saint Theodore the Studite
The precious and life-giving cross of Christ
How precious the gift of the cross, how splendid to contemplate! In the cross there is no mingling of good and evil, as in the tree of paradise: it is wholly beautiful to behold and good to taste. The fruit of this tree is not death but life, not darkness but light. This tree does not cast us out of paradise, but opens the way for our return.
This was the tree on which Christ, like a king on a chariot, destroyed the devil, the Lord of death, and freed the human race from his tyranny. This was the tree upon which the Lord, like a brave warrior wounded in his hands, feet and side, healed the wounds of sin that the evil serpent had inflicted on our nature. A tree once caused our death, but now a tree brings life. Once deceived by a tree, we have now repelled the cunning serpent by a tree. What an astonishing transformation! That death should become life, that decay should become immortality, that shame should become glory! Well might the holy Apostle exclaim: Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world! The supreme wisdom that flowered on the cross has shown the folly of worldly wisdom’s pride. The knowledge of all good, which is the fruit of the cross, has cut away the shoots of wickedness.
The wonders accomplished through this tree were foreshadowed clearly even by the mere types and figures that existed in the past. Meditate on these, if you are eager to learn. Was it not the wood of a tree that enabled Noah, at God’s command, to escape the destruction of the flood together with his sons, his wife, his sons’ wives and every kind of animal? And surely the rod of Moses prefigured the cross when it changed water into blood, swallowed up the false serpents of Pharaoh’s magicians, divided the sea at one stroke and then restored the waters to their normal course, drowning the enemy and saving God’s own people? Aaron’s rod, which blossomed in one day in proof of his true priesthood, was another figure of the cross, and did not Abraham foreshadow the cross when he bound his son Isaac and placed him on the pile of wood?
By the cross death was slain and Adam was restored to life. The cross is the glory of all the apostles, the crown of the martyrs, the sanctification of the saints. By the cross we put on Christ and cast aside our former self. By the cross we, the sheep of Christ, have been gathered into one flock, destined for the sheepfolds of heaven.
Responsory
℟. The cross is the tree beyond price, set in the centre of the Garden of God,* the tree on which the author of salvation, by his own death, has overcome the death of every man, alleluia.
℣. You alone stand out above the whole forest of cedars,* the tree on which the author of salvation, by his own death, has overcome the death of every man, alleluia.
________
Let us pray.
By your will, Lord God,
your Son underwent the agony of the cross
to break the power of Satan over man.
Give your people grace to rise again with Christ,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
________
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.