Wednesday 26 May 2021
Saint Philip Neri, Priest
on Wednesday of week 8 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
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 102 (103):1-7
Praise of the compassionate Lord
“Through the tender mercy of God, the Rising Sun has come to visit us from on high” (cf. Lk 1:78).
My soul, give thanks to the Lord, and never forget all his blessings.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
all my being, bless his holy name.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
and never forget all his blessings.
It is he who forgives all your guilt,
who heals every one of your ills,
who redeems your life from the grave,
who crowns you with love and compassion,
who fills your life with good things,
renewing your youth like an eagle’s.
The Lord does deeds of justice,
gives judgement for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses
and his deeds to Israel’s sons.
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.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord, and never forget all his blessings.
________
Psalm 102 (103):8-16
As a father has compassion on his sons, the Lord has pity on those who fear him.
The Lord is compassion and love,
slow to anger and rich in mercy.
His wrath will come to an end;
he will not be angry for ever.
He does not treat us according to our sins
nor repay us according to our faults.
For as the heavens are high above the earth
so strong is his love for those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west
so far does he remove our sins.
As a father has compassion on his sons,
the Lord has pity on those who fear him;
for he knows of what we are made,
he remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass;
he flowers like the flower of the field;
the wind blows and he is gone
and his place never sees him again.
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.
As a father has compassion on his sons, the Lord has pity on those who fear him.
________
Psalm 102 (103):17-22
Give thanks to the Lord, all his works.
But the love of the Lord is everlasting
upon those who hold him in fear;
his justice reaches out to children’s children
when they keep his covenant in truth,
when they keep his will in their mind.
The Lord has set his sway in heaven
and his kingdom is ruling over all.
Give thanks to the Lord, all his angels,
mighty in power, fulfilling his word,
who heed the voice of his word.
Give thanks to the Lord, all his hosts,
his servants who do his will.
Give thanks to the Lord, all his works,
in every place where he rules.
My soul, give thanks to 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.
Give thanks to the Lord, all his works.
Psalm-prayer
You have compassion for the sinner, Lord, as a father has compassion for his children. Heal the weakness of your people and save us from lasting death that we may praise and glorify you for ever.
Or:
God of kindness and Father of mercy, you remove sin and renew life through baptism. Remember that we are dust. Do not treat us as our sins deserve, but help us to keep the commands of your new covenant and praise you with the saints and angels.
________
℣. You will hear the word from my mouth.
℟. You will speak to them in my name.
________
Readings (official one-year cycle)
First Reading
Job 7:1-21
Job cries to God out of weariness
Job spoke next. He said:
Is not man’s life on earth nothing more than pressed service,
his time no better than hired drudgery?
Like the slave, sighing for the shade,
or the workman with no thought but his wages,
months of delusion I have assigned to me,
nothing for my own but nights of grief.
Lying in bed I wonder, ‘When will it be day?’
Risen I think, ‘How slowly evening comes!’
Restlessly I fret till twilight falls.
Vermin cover my flesh, and loathsome scabs;
my skin is cracked and oozes pus.
Swifter than a weaver’s shuttle my days have passed,
and vanished, leaving no hope behind.
Remember that my life is but a breath,
and that my eyes will never again see joy.
The eye that once saw me will look on me no more,
your eyes will turn my way, and I shall not be there.
As a cloud dissolves and is gone,
so he who goes down to Sheol never ascends again.
He never comes home again,
and his house knows him no more.
No wonder then if I cannot keep silence;
in the anguish of my spirit I must speak,
lament in the bitterness of my soul.
Am I the Sea, or the Wild Sea Beast,
that you should keep me under watch and guard?
If I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,
my couch will soothe my pain’,
you frighten me with dreams
and terrify me with visions.
Strangling I would welcome rather,
and death itself, than these my sufferings.
I waste away, my life is not unending;
leave me then, for my days are but a breath.
What is man that you should make so much of him,
subjecting him to your scrutiny,
that morning after morning you should examine him
and at every instant test him?
Will you never take your eyes off me
long enough for me to swallow my spittle?
Suppose I have sinned, what have I done to you,
you tireless watcher of mankind?
Why do you choose me as your target?
Why should I be a burden to you?
Can you not tolerate my sin,
nor overlook my fault?
It will not be long before I lie in earth;
then you will look for me, but I shall be no more.
Responsory
Pr 31:17-18; Ps 46:6
℟. Vermin cover my flesh, and loathsome scabs; my skin is cracked and festering.* Lord, remember that my life is but a breath.
℣. Swifter than a weaver’s shuttle my days have passed, leaving no hope behind.* Lord, remember that my life is but a breath.
________
Second Reading
From a sermon by Saint Augustine
Always rejoice in the Lord
The Apostle commands us to rejoice, but in the Lord, not in the world. For, you see, as Scripture says, whoever wishes to be a friend of this world will be counted as God’s enemy. Just as a man cannot serve two masters, so too no-one can rejoice both in the world and in the Lord.
Let joy in the Lord win and go on winning, until people take no more joy in the world. Let joy in the Lord always go on growing, and joy in the world always go on shrinking until it is reduced to nothing. I do not mean that we should not rejoice as long as we are in this world, but that even while we do find ourselves in this world, we should already be rejoicing in the Lord.
Someone may argue, “I am in the world; so obviously, if I rejoice, I rejoice where I am”. What of it? Because you are in the world, does it mean that you are not in the Lord? Listen to the same Apostle in the Acts of the Apostles, speaking to the Athenians, and saying about God and about the Lord, our Creator, In him we live, and move, and are. Since he is everywhere, there is nowhere that he is not. Is it not precisely this that he is emphasising to encourage us? The Lord is very near; do not be anxious about anything.
This is something tremendous, that he ascended above all the heavens but is still very near to those who dwell on earth, wherever they may be. Who can this be that is both far away and close at hand, except the one who became our near neighbour out of mercy?
The whole of the human race, you see, is that man who was lying in the road, left there by robbers, half dead, who was ignored by the passing priest and Levite, while the passing Samaritan stopped by him to take care of him and help him; and when the Immortal, the Just, was far away from us mortals and sinners, he came down to us to become – that far distant being – our near neighbour.
He has not treated us according to our sins. For we are his children. How do we prove this? The only Son died for us so that he would not remain the only child. He did not want to be alone, who died alone. The only Son of God made many children for God. He bought himself brothers and sisters with his blood; rejected, he accepted us; sold, he bought us back; dishonoured, he honoured us; killed, he brought us life.
So then, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, not in the world; that is, rejoice in faithfulness and not in iniquity; rejoice in the hope of eternity and not the brief flower of vanity. Rejoice thus, and wherever you are here, as long as you are here, the Lord is very near: do not be anxious about anything.
Responsory
℟. Rejoice, my brothers. Strive for perfection; listen to my appeals; agree with one another, and live in peace,* and the God of love and peace will be with you.
℣. May God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace by means of your faith in him,* and the God of love and peace will be with you.
________
Let us pray.
God our Father, you are continually raising to the glory of holiness
those who serve you faithfully.
In your love, hear our prayer:
let the Holy Spirit inflame us with that fire with which, in so admirable a way,
he took possession of Saint Philip’s heart.
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.
________
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.