Wednesday 20 January 2021
Wednesday of week 2 in Ordinary Time
or Saint Fabian, Pope, Martyr
or Saint Sebastian, 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.
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Hymn
O God, creation’s secret force,
yourself unmoved, all motion’s source,
who from the morn till evening ray
through all its changes guide the day:
Grant us, when this short life is past,
the glorious evening that shall last;
that, by a holy death attained,
eternal glory may be gained.
To God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit, Three in One,
may every tongue and nation raise
an endless song of thankful praise!
St Ambrose of Milan
________
Psalm 38 (39)
A prayer in sickness
“Creation was unable to attain its purpose because of him who kept it so in a state of hope” (Rom 8:20).
We groan inwardly and await the redemption of our bodies.
I said: ‘I will be watchful of my ways
for fear I should sin with my tongue.
I will put a curb on my lips
when the wicked man stands before me.’
I was dumb, silent and still.
His prosperity stirred my grief.
My heart was burning within me.
At the thought of it, the fire blazed up
and my tongue burst into speech:
‘O Lord, you have shown me my end,
how short is the length of my days.
Now I know how fleeting is my life.
‘You have given me a short span of days;
my life is as nothing in your sight.
A mere breath, the man who stood so firm,
a mere shadow, the man passing by;
a mere breath the riches he hoards,
not knowing who will have them.’
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.
We groan inwardly and await the redemption of our bodies.
________
Psalm 38 (39)
Lord, hear my prayer: do not be deaf to my tears.
And now, Lord, what is there to wait for?
In you rests all my hope.
Set me free from all my sins,
do not make me the taunt of the fool.
I was silent, not opening my lips,
because this was all your doing.
Take away your scourge from me.
I am crushed by the blows of your hand.
You punish man’s sins and correct him;
like the moth you devour all he treasures.
Mortal man is no more than a breath;
O Lord, hear my prayer.
O Lord, turn your ear to my cry.
Do not be deaf to my tears.
In your house I am a passing guest,
a pilgrim, like all my fathers.
Look away that I may breathe again
before I depart to be no more.
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, hear my prayer: do not be deaf to my tears.
Psalm-prayer
Through your Son you taught us, Father, not to be fearful of tomorrow but to commit our lives to your care. Do not withhold your Spirit from us but help us find a life of peace after these days of trouble.
________
Psalm 51 (52)
Against calumny
“Let the one who glories glory in the Lord” (1 Cor 1:31).
I trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever.
Why do you boast of your wickedness,
you champion of evil,
planning ruin all day long,
your tongue like a sharpened razor,
you master of deceit?
You love evil more than good,
lies more than truth.
You love the destructive word,
you tongue of deceit.
For this God will destroy you
and remove you for ever.
He will snatch you from your tent and uproot you
from the land of the living.
The just shall see and fear.
They shall laugh and say:
‘So this is the man who refused
to take God as a stronghold,
but trusted in the greatness of his wealth
and grew powerful by his crimes.’
But I am like a growing olive tree
in the house of God.
I trust in the goodness of God
for ever and ever.
I will thank you for evermore;
for this is your doing.
I will proclaim that your name is good,
in the presence of your friends.
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 trust in the goodness of God for ever and ever.
Psalm-prayer
Father, hear the prayer of your family. Make us flourish in your domain like fruitful olive trees, confiding in your loving kindness here and longing to see your face when we take our place among the blessed in heaven.
Or:
Father, you cut down the unfruitful branch for burning and prune the fertile to make it bear more fruit. Make us grow like laden olive trees in your domain, firmly rooted in the power and mercy of your Son, so that you may gather from us fruit worthy of eternal life.
________
℣. My soul trusts in the word of the Lord.
℟. My soul is longing for him.
________
Readings (official one-year cycle)
First Reading
Deuteronomy 7:6-14,8:1-6
Israel, the chosen people
These are the words that Moses spoke beyond Jordan to the whole of Israel:
You are a people consecrated to the Lord your God; it is you that the Lord our God has chosen to be his very own people out of all the peoples on the earth.
If the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, it was not because you outnumbered other peoples: you were the least of all peoples. It was for love of you and to keep the oath he swore to your fathers that the Lord brought you out with his mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know then that the Lord your God is God indeed, the faithful God who is true to his covenant and his graciousness for a thousand generations towards those who love him and keep his commandments, but who punishes in their own persons those that hate him. He is not slow to destroy the man who hates him; he makes him work out his punishment in person. You are therefore to keep and observe the commandments and statutes and ordinances that I lay down for you today.
Listen to these ordinances, be true to them and observe them, and in return the Lord your God will be true to the covenant and the kindness he promised your fathers solemnly. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers; he will bless the fruit of your body and the produce of your soil, your corn, your wine, your oil, the issue of your cattle, the young of your flock, in the land he swore to your fathers he would give you. You will be more blessed than all peoples. No man or woman among you shall be barren, no male or female of your beasts infertile.
All the commandments I enjoin on you today you must keep and observe so that you may live and increase in numbers and enter into the land that the Lord promised on oath to your fathers, and make it your own. Remember how the Lord your God led you for forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, to test you and know your inmost heart – whether you would keep his commandments or not. He humbled you, he made you feel hunger, he fed you with manna which neither you nor your fathers had known, to make you understand that man does not live on bread alone but that man lives on everything that comes from the mouth of the Lord. The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet were not swollen, all those forty years.
Learn from this that the Lord your God was training you as a man trains his child, and keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and so follow his ways and reverence him.
Responsory
1 Jn 4:10,16; cf. Is 63:8-9
℟. God first loved us and sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away,* and we have known and put our faith in God’s love towards us.
℣. The Lord has proved himself our Saviour; he has redeemed us in his love,* and we have known and put our faith in God’s love towards us.
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Second Reading
From "Lumen gentium", the Second Vatican Council's dogmatic constitution on the Church
Behold! I will save my people
By an utterly free and mysterious decree of his own wisdom and goodness, the eternal Father created the whole world. His plan was to dignify men with a participation in his own divine life. When in Adam men had fallen, he did not abandon them, but ceaselessly offered them help to salvation, in anticipation of Christ the Redeemer, ‘who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature’. All the elect, before time began, the Father ‘foreknew and predestined to become conformed to the image of his Son, that he should be the firstborn among many brethren’.
All those who would believe in Christ he planned to assemble in the holy Church, which was already foreshadowed from the beginning of the world. In a remarkable way the Church was prepared for throughout the history of the people of Israel and by means of the Old Covenant. Established in the present era of time, she was made manifest by the outpouring of the Spirit. At the end of time she will achieve her glorious fulfilment. Then, as may be read in the holy Fathers, all just men from the time of Adam, ‘from Abel, the just one, to the last of the elect’, will be gathered together with the Father in the universal Church.
Finally, those who have not yet received the gospel are related in various ways to the People of God.
In the first place there is that people to whom the covenants and promises were made and from whom Christ was born according to the flesh. On account of their fathers, this people remains most dear to God, for God does not repent of the gifts he makes nor of the calls he issues.
But the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the creator. In the first place among these there are the Moslems; they profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and along with us adore the one and merciful God, who will judge mankind on the last day.
Nor is God himself far distant from those who in shadows and images seek the unknown God, for it is he who gives to all men life and breath and every other gift, and who as Saviour wills that all men be saved.
Those also can attain to everlasting salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the gospel of Christ or his Church, yet sincerely seek God and, moved by grace, strive by their deeds to do his will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience. Nor does divine Providence deny the help necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God but who strive, aided by his grace, to live a good life.
Whatever goodness or truth is found amongst them, is looked upon by the Church as a preparation for the gospel, and as given by him who enlightens all men that they may finally have life.
Responsory
℟. God’s plan, which he will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together,* everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head.
℣. God wanted all perfection to be found in him and all things to be reconciled through him and for him,* everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head.
________
Let us pray.
Almighty God,
ruler of all things in heaven and on earth,
listen favourably to the prayer of your people,
and grant us your peace in our day.
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 © 1996-2021 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.