Saturday 10 July 2021
Saturday of week 14 in Ordinary Time
or Saturday memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary
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
Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, thy great Name we praise.
Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
Thy justice like mountains high soaring above
Thy clouds, which are fountains of goodness and love.
To all life thou givest, to both great and small;
In all life thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish, like leaves on the tree,
Then wither and perish; but naught changeth thee.
Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
All laud we would render: O help us to see
’Tis only the splendour of light hideth thee.
________
Psalm 135 (136):1-9
A paschal hymn
“To tell of the works of the Lord is to give praise” (Cassiodorus).
The Lord alone has wrought marvellous works, for his love endures for ever.
O give thanks to the Lord for he is good,
for his love endures for ever.
Give thanks to the God of gods
for his love endures for ever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his love endures for ever;
who alone has wrought marvellous works,
for his love endures for ever;
whose wisdom it was made the skies,
for his love endures for ever;
who fixed the earth firmly on the seas,
for his love endures for ever.
It was he who made the great lights,
for his love endures for ever;
the sun to rule in the day,
for his love endures for ever;
the moon and stars in the night,
for his love endures for ever.
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.
The Lord alone has wrought marvellous works, for his love endures for ever.
________
Psalm 135 (136):10-15
He brought Israel out from Egypt, with arm outstretched, with power in his hand.
The first-born of the Egyptians he smote,
for his love endures for ever.
He brought Israel out from their midst,
for his love endures for ever;
arm outstretched, with power in his hand,
for his love endures for ever.
He divided the Red Sea in two,
for his love endures for ever;
he made Israel pass through the midst,
for his love endures for ever;
he flung Pharaoh and his force in the sea,
for his love endures for ever.
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.
He brought Israel out from Egypt, with arm outstretched, with power in his hand.
________
Psalm 135 (136):16-26
To the Lord of heaven give thanks: he set us free from our foes.
Through the desert his people he led,
for his love endures for ever.
Nations in their greatness he struck,
for his love endures for ever.
Kings in their splendour he slew,
for his love endures for ever.
Sihon, king of the Amorites,
for his love endures for ever;
and Og, the king of Bashan,
for his love endures for ever.
He let Israel inherit their land,
for his love endures for ever.
On his servant their land he bestowed,
for his love endures for ever.
He remembered us in our distress,
for his love endures for ever.
And he snatched us away from our foes,
for his love endures for ever.
He gives food to all living things,
for his love endures for ever.
To the God of heaven give thanks,
for his love endures for ever.
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.
To the Lord of heaven give thanks: he set us free from our foes.
Psalm-prayer
Almighty God, remember our lowliness and have mercy. Once you gave our fathers a foreign land to inherit. Free us today from sin and give us a share in your inheritance.
Or:
God of everlasting love, in and through your Son you made all things in heaven and on earth. You have opened to us the Easter path from death to life. Listen to the song of the universe, the hymn of resurrection, sung by your Church. May we gain life from your bread and inherit a place in heaven.
________
℣. Lord, let me know your ways.
℟. Teach me your paths.
________
Readings (official one-year cycle)
First Reading
Ecclesiasticus 47:14-31
A wise son succeeded David,
who lived spaciously, thanks to him.
Solomon reigned in a time of peace,
and God gave him peace all round
so that he could raise a house to his name
and prepare an everlasting sanctuary.
How wise you were in your youth,
brimming over with understanding like a river!
Your mind ranged the earth,
you filled it with mysterious sayings.
Your name reached the distant islands,
and you were loved for your peace.
Your songs, your proverbs, your sayings
and your retorts made you the wonder of the world.
In the name of the Lord God,
of him who is called the God of Israel,
you amassed gold like so much tin,
and made silver as common as lead.
You abandoned your body to women,
you became the slave of your appetites.
You stained your honour,
you profaned your stock,
so bringing wrath on your children
and grief on your posterity:
the sovereignty was split in two,
from Ephraim arose a rebel kingdom.
But the Lord would not go back on his mercy,
or undo any of his words,
he would not obliterate the issue of his elect,
nor destroy the stock of the man who loved him;
and so he granted a remnant to Jacob,
and to David a root springing from him.
Solomon rested with his ancestors,
leaving one of his stock as his successor,
the stupidest member of the nation,
brainless Rehoboam, whose policy drove the nation to rebel.
Next, Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel sin,
and set Ephraim on the way of evil;
from then on their sins multiplied so excessively
as to drive them out of their country;
for they tried out every kind of wickedness,
until vengeance overtook them.
Responsory
℟. I will gather the sons of Israel from all sides, and they shall no longer be two nations nor defile themselves any more with their idols:* they shall be my people, and they shall all have one shepherd.
℣. I have other sheep that are not of this fold, whom I must bring in. There shall be one flock, one shepherd:* they shall be my people, and they shall all have one shepherd.
________
Second Reading
From a discourse of St Augustine on Psalm 126
The true Solomon is our Lord Jesus Christ
Because Solomon had built a temple to the Lord – a prototype and an image of the future Church, the Lord’s body, which is why the Gospel says Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up – because the Solomon of history had built that temple, our Lord Jesus Christ, the true Solomon, built a temple for himself. The name ‘Solomon’ means ‘Bringer of Peace’, and our Lord, the true Solomon, is the true bringer of peace, which is why the Apostle says He is our peace, who has made both into one. He is the true bringer of peace, who has taken two walls coming from different directions and joined them through himself, becoming the cornerstone that unites them: the believers who come from the people of the circumcision and the believers who come from the uncircumcised. He has made one Church from the two peoples, he has become their cornerstone and their peacemaker.
So because the historical Solomon, son of David and Bathsheba, king of Israel, was prefiguring this peacemaker when he built the Temple, Scripture takes care that you should not think that he himself was the peacemaker. Scripture shows you another Solomon, by beginning a psalm with the words, Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. So the Lord builds the house, the Lord Jesus Christ builds a house for himself. Many labour to build it, but if he is not the architect, in vain have its builders laboured.
Who are they who work at building it? They are everyone in the Church who preaches the word of God or administers the sacraments of God. We all rush around, we all labour, we all build; and before us, others rushed, laboured, built; but unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. For this reason, when they saw some of the people fall, the Apostles, and Paul himself, said: You and your special days and months and seasons and years! You make me feel I have wasted my time with you. Because he knew that he had been built up by the Lord from within, he wept over these others because he had worked among them to no avail.
We speak in public, but he builds inside. How well do you listen? We can tell. What do you think of it? He alone knows, who sees your thoughts. It is he who builds, he who gives advice, he who instils fear, he who opens the understanding, he who directs your perceptions and leads you to faith; and yet we too work, as labourers in the harvest.
Responsory
℟. When the temple was completed, the glory of the Lord filled the temple court, and the king, overcome with joy, exclaimed:* Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for all his promises to David my father.
℣. Destroy this temple and in three days I will rebuild it.* Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for all his promises to David my father.
________
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.