Monday 31 August 2020
Monday of week 22 in Ordinary Time
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 30 (31)
Trustful prayer in time of adversity
“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Lk 23:46).
Hear me, Lord, and come to rescue me.
In you, O Lord, I take refuge.
Let me never be put to shame.
In your justice, set me free,
hear me and speedily rescue me.
Be a rock of refuge for me,
a mighty stronghold to save me,
for you are my rock, my stronghold.
For your name’s sake, lead me and guide me.
Release me from the snares they have hidden
for you are my refuge, Lord.
Into your hands I commend my spirit.
It is you who will redeem me, Lord.
O God of truth, you detest
those who worship false and empty gods.
As for me, I trust in the Lord:
let me be glad and rejoice in your love.
You who have seen my affliction
and taken heed of my soul’s distress,
have not handed me over to the enemy,
but set my feet at large.
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.
Hear me, Lord, and come to rescue me.
________
Psalm 30 (31)
Lord, let your face shine on your servant.
Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for I am in distress.
Tears have wasted my eyes,
my throat and my heart.
For my life is spent with sorrow
and my years with sighs.
Affliction has broken down my strength
and my bones waste away.
In the face of all my foes
I am a reproach,
an object of scorn to my neighbours
and of fear to my friends.
Those who see me in the street
run far away from me.
I am like a dead man, forgotten,
like a thing thrown away.
I have heard the slander of the crowd,
fear is all around me,
as they plot together against me,
as they plan to take my life.
But as for me, I trust in you, Lord;
I say: ‘You are my God.
My life is in your hands, deliver me
from the hands of those who hate me.
Let your face shine on your servant.
Save me in your love.’
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.
Lord, let your face shine on your servant.
________
Psalm 30 (31)
Blessed be the Lord, who has shown me the wonders of his love.
How great is the goodness, Lord,
that you keep for those who fear you,
that you show to those who trust you
in the sight of men.
You hide them in the shelter of your presence
from the plotting of men;
you keep them safe within your tent
from disputing tongues.
Blessed be the Lord who has shown me
the wonders of his love
in a fortified city.
‘I am far removed from your sight’
I said in my alarm.
Yet you heard the voice of my plea
when I cried for help.
Love the Lord, all you saints.
He guards his faithful
but the Lord will repay to the full
those who act with pride.
Be strong, let your heart take courage,
all who hope in 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.
Blessed be the Lord, who has shown me the wonders of his love.
Psalm-prayer
God of kindness and truth, you saved your Chosen One, Jesus Christ, and you gave your martyrs strength. Watch over your people who come to you here and strengthen the hearts of those who hope in you, that they may proclaim your saving acts of kindness in the eternal city.
________
℣. Lead me in the way of your truth and teach me, O Lord.
℟. You are the God who saves me.
________
Readings (official one-year cycle)
First Reading
Jeremiah 19:1-5,10-20:6
The symbol of the broken flask
Then the Lord said to Jeremiah, ‘Go and buy an earthenware jug. Take some of the elders of the people and some priests with you. Go out towards the Valley of Ben-hinnom, as far as the entry of the Gate of the Potsherds. There proclaim the words I shall speak to you. You are to say, “Kings of Judah, citizens of Jerusalem! Listen to the word of the Lord! the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says this: I am bringing down such a disaster on this place that the ears of every one who hears of it will ring. This is because they have abandoned me, have profaned this place, have offered incense here to alien gods which neither they, nor their ancestors, nor the kings of Judah, ever knew before. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built high places for Baal to burn their sons there, which I had never ordered or decreed, which had never entered my thoughts.”
‘You are to break this jug in front of the men who are with you, and say to them, “The Lord of Hosts says this: I am going to break this people and this city just as one breaks a potter’s pot, irreparably. Topheth will become a burial ground, for lack of other space. That is how I will treat this place – it is the Lord who speaks. And I mean to make this city like Topheth; the houses of Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be unclean like this place Topheth: all these houses on the roofs of which they offered incense to the whole array of heaven and poured their libations to alien gods.”’
When Jeremiah came back from Topheth where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, he went and stood in the court of the Temple of the Lord and addressed all the people. ‘The Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says this, “Yes, I am going to bring down every disaster I have threatened on this city and on all its outlying towns, since they have grown so stubborn and refused to listen to my words.”’
Now the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was in charge of the police in the Temple of the Lord, heard Jeremiah making this prophecy. Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and then put in the stocks at the Gate of Benjamin, the upper gate leading into the Temple of the Lord. Next day, Pashhur had Jeremiah taken out of the stocks; Jeremiah said to him, ‘Not Pashhur but Terror is the Lord’s name for you. For the Lord says this, “I am going to hand you over to terror, you and all your friends; they shall fall by the sword of their enemies; your own eyes shall see it. The whole of Judah, too, I will hand over to the king of Babylon; he will carry them off captives to Babylon and put them to the sword. And all the wealth of this city, all its stores, all its valuables, all the treasures of the kings of Judah, I will hand over to their enemies who will plunder them, round them up and carry them off to Babylon. As for you, Pashhur, and your whole household, you shall go into captivity; you shall go to Babylon; there you will die, and there be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.”’
Responsory
Mt 23:37; Jr 19:15
℟. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you!* How often have I longed to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you refused!
℣. You have grown stubborn and refused to listen to my words.* How often have I longed to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you refused!
________
Second Reading
From "The Imitation of Christ"
I taught my prophets
My son, says the Lord, listen to my words, the most delightful of all words, surpassing all the knowledge of the philosophers and wise men of this world. My words are spirit and life and cannot be comprehended by human senses alone. They are not to be interpreted according to the vain pleasure of the listener, but they must be listened to in silence and received with all humility and great affection.
And I said: Blessed is the man whom you teach, Lord, and whom you instruct in your law; for him you soften the blow of the evil day, and you do not desert him on the earth.
The Lord says, I have instructed my prophets from the beginning. Even to the present time I have not stopped speaking to all men, but many are deaf and obstinate in response.
Many hear the world more easily than they hear God; they follow the desires of the flesh more readily than the pleasure of God. The world promises rewards that are temporal and insignificant, and these are pursued with great longing; I promise rewards that are eternal and unsurpassable, yet the hearts of mortals respond sluggishly.
Who serves and obeys me in all matters with as much care as the world and its princes are served?
Blush, then, you lazy, complaining servant, for men are better prepared for the works of death than you are for the works of life. They take more joy in vanity than you in truth.
Yet they are often deceived in their hope, while my promise deceives no one, and leaves empty-handed no one who confides in me. What I have promised I shall give; what I have said I will fulfil for any man who remains faithful in my love unto the very end. I am the rewarder of all good men, the one who rigorously tests the devoted.
Write my words in your heart and study them diligently, for they will be absolutely necessary in the time of temptation. Whatever you fail to understand in reading my words will become clear to you on the day of your visitation.
I visit my elect in a double fashion: that is, with temptation and with consolation. And I read to them two lessons each day: one to rebuke them for their faults; the other to exhort them to increase their virtue.
He who possesses my words, yet spurns them, earns his own judgement on the last day.
Responsory
℟. My son, mark my words, and accept guidance with a will,* for there is a garland of grace on your head.
℣. My son, attend to my wisdom and listen to my good counsel,* for there is a garland of grace on your head.
________
Let us pray.
Father of might and power,
every good and perfect gift
comes down to us from you.
Implant in our hearts the love of your name,
increase our zeal for your service,
nourish what is good in us
and tend it with watchful care.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
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.