Friday 9 July 2021
Friday of week 14 in Ordinary Time
or Saint Augustine Zhao Rong and his Companions, Martyrs
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
God has spoken by his prophets,
Spoken his unchanging word,
Each from age to age proclaiming
God the One, the righteous Lord.
Mid the world’s despair and turmoil,
one firm anchor holdeth fast:
God is King, his throne eternal,
God the first and God the last.
God has spoken by Christ Jesus,
Christ, the everlasting Son,
Brightness of the Father’s glory,
With the Father ever one;
Spoken by the Word incarnate,
God of God, ere time began,
Light of Light, to earth descending,
Man, revealing God to man.
________
Psalm 37 (38):2-5
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 Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger;
do not punish me, Lord, in your rage.
Your arrows have sunk deep in me;
your hand has come down upon me.
Through your anger all my body is sick:
through my sin, there is no health in my limbs.
My guilt towers higher than my head;
it is a weight too heavy to bear.
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):6-13
O Lord, you know all my longing.
My wounds are foul and festering,
the result of my own folly.
I am bowed and brought to my knees.
I go mourning all the day long.
All my frame burns with fever;
all my body is sick.
Spent and utterly crushed,
I cry aloud in anguish of heart.
O Lord, you know all my longing:
my groans are not hidden from you.
My heart throbs, my strength is spent;
the very light has gone from my eyes.
My friends avoid me like a leper;
those closest to me stand afar off.
Those who plot against my life lay snares;
those who seek my ruin speak of harm,
planning treachery all the day long.
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.
________
Psalm 37 (38):14-23
I confess my guilt to you, Lord; do not forsake me, my saviour.
But I am like the deaf who cannot hear,
like the dumb unable to speak.
I am like a man who hears nothing
in whose mouth is no defence.
I count on you, O Lord:
it is you, Lord God, who will answer.
I pray: ‘Do not let them mock me,
those who triumph if my foot should slip.’
For I am on the point of falling
and my pain is always before me.
I confess that I am guilty
and my sin fills me with dismay.
My wanton enemies are numberless
and my lying foes are many.
They repay me evil for good
and attack me for seeking what is right.
O Lord, do not forsake me!
My God, do not stay afar off!
Make haste and come to my help,
O Lord, my God, my saviour!
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.
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.
________
℣. My eyes yearn for your saving help.
℟. I await the promise of your justice.
________
Readings (official one-year cycle)
First Reading
1 Kings 1:11-35,2:10-12
David selects Solomon as his successor
Then Nathan said to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, ‘Have you not heard that unknown to our lord David, Adonijah, Haggith’s son, has become king? Well, this is my advice to you if you want to save your own life and the life of your son Solomon. Go straight in to King David and say, “My lord king, did you not make your servant this promise on oath: Your son Solomon is to be king after me; he is the one who is to sit on my throne? How is it, then, that Adonijah is king?” And while you are still there talking to the king, I will come in after you and confirm what you say.’
So Bathsheba went to the king in his room (he was very old and Abishag of Shunem was in attendance on him). She knelt down and did homage to the king, and the king said, ‘What is your wish?’ ‘My lord,’ she answered ‘you swore this to your servant by the Lord your God, “Your son Solomon is to be king after me; he is the one who is to sit on my throne.” And now here is Adonijah king and you, my lord king, knowing nothing about it. He has sacrificed quantities of oxen and fatted calves and sheep, and invited all the royal princes, the priest Abiathar, and Joab the army commander; but he has not invited your servant Solomon. Yet you are the man, my lord king, to whom all Israel looks, to name for them the successor of my lord the king. And when my lord the king sleeps with his fathers, my son Solomon and I will be made to suffer for this.’
She was still speaking when the prophet Nathan entered. ‘The prophet Nathan is here’ they told the king; and he came into the king’s presence and bowed down to the ground on his face before the king. ‘My lord king,’ said Nathan ‘is this, then, your decree: “Adonijah is to be king after me; he is the one who is to sit on my throne”? For he has gone down today and sacrificed quantities of oxen and fattened calves and sheep, and invited all the royal princes, the army chiefs, and the priest Abiathar; and they are there now, eating and drinking in his presence and shouting, “Long live King Adonijah!” He has not, however, invited me your servant, Zadok the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, or your servant Solomon. Is this with my lord the king’s approval? Or have you not told those loyal to you who is to succeed to the throne of my lord the king?’
Then King David spoke. ‘Call Bathsheba to me’ he said. And she came into the king’s presence and stood before him. Then the king swore this oath, ‘As the Lord lives, who has delivered me from all adversity, just as I swore to you by the Lord the God of Israel that your son Solomon should be king after me and take my place on the throne, so I will bring it about this very day.’ Bathsheba knelt down, her face to the ground, and did homage to the king. ‘May my lord King David live for ever!’ she said. Then King David said, ‘Summon Zadok the priest, the prophet Nathan and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.’ So they came into the king’s presence. ‘Take the royal guard with you,’ said the king ‘mount my son Solomon on my own mule and escort him down to Gihon. There Zadok the priest and the prophet Nathan are to anoint him king of Israel; then sound the trumpet and shout, “Long live King Solomon!” Then you are to follow him up and he is to come and take his seat on my throne and be king in place of me, for he is the man I have appointed as ruler of Israel and of Judah.’
So David slept with his ancestors and was buried in the Citadel of David. David’s reign over Israel lasted forty years: he reigned in Hebron for seven years, and in Jerusalem for thirty-three.
Solomon was seated upon the throne of David, and his sovereignty was securely established.
Responsory
Sg 3:11; Ps 72:1-2
℟. Come out, O daughters of Zion, and see King Solomon wearing the crown that was his mother’s gift to him,* on his day of triumph.
℣. Grant to the king, O God, your own skill in judgement: may he deal out justice to the people and to your poor, redress,* on his day of triumph.
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Second Reading
From a letter of Pope St Clement I to the Corinthians
We are blessed if we fulfil the commands of the Lord in the harmony of love
Beloved, see what a marvellous thing love is; its perfection is beyond our expression. Who can truly love save those to whom God grants it? We ought to beg and beseech him in his mercy that our love may be genuine, unmarred by any too human inclination. From Adam down to the present time all generations have passed away; but those who were perfected in love by God’s grace have a place among the saints who will be revealed when the kingdom of Christ comes to us. As it is written: Enter your chambers for a little while, until my wrath and anger pass away; and I shall remember a good day and raise you from your graves. We are blessed, beloved, if we fulfil the commands of the Lord in harmonious, loving union, so that through love our sins may be forgiven. For it is written: Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes not iniquity, and in whose mouth there is no deceit. This is the blessing that has been given to those who have been chosen by God through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
We should pray then that we may be granted forgiveness for our sins and for whatever we may have done when led astray by our adversary’s servants. And for those who were the leaders of the schism and the sedition, they too should look to the common hope. For those who live in pious fear and in love are willing to endure torment rather than have their neighbour suffer; and they more willingly suffer their own condemnation than the loss of that harmony that has been so nobly and righteously handed down to us. For it is better for a man to confess his sins than to harden his heart.
Who then among you is generous, who is compassionate, who is filled with love? He should speak out as follows: If I have been the cause of sedition, conflict and schisms, then I shall depart; I shall go away wherever you wish, and I shall do what the community wants, if only the flock of Christ live in peace with the presbyters who are set over them. Whoever acts thus would win great glory for himself in Christ, and he would be received everywhere, for the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. Thus have they acted in the past and will continue to act in the future who live without regret as citizens in the city of God.
Responsory
℟. This is the commandment that Christ gave us:* he who loves God must love his brother also.
℣. The whole law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets depend on these two commandments.* He who loves God must love his brother also.
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Let us pray.
Lord God,
when our world lay in ruins,
you raised it up again on the foundation of your Son’s Passion and Death.
Give us grace to rejoice in the freedom from sin which he gained for us,
and bring us to everlasting joy.
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.