Saturday 16 October 2021
Saturday of week 28 in Ordinary Time
or Saint Hedwig, Religious
or Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin
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.
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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.
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Psalm 49 (50):1-6
True reverence for the Lord
“I have not come to abolish the Law but to bring it to perfection” (cf Mt 5:17).
The Lord has summoned heaven and earth to witness his judgement of his people.
The God of gods, the Lord,
has spoken and summoned the earth,
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Out of Sion’s perfect beauty he shines.
Our God comes, he keeps silence no longer.
Before him fire devours,
around him tempest rages.
He calls on the heavens and the earth
to witness his judgement of his people.
‘Summon before me my people
who made covenant with me by sacrifice.’
The heavens proclaim his justice,
for God himself is the judge.
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 has summoned heaven and earth to witness his judgement of his people.
________
Psalm 49 (50):7-15
Call on me in the day of trouble, and I will come to free you.
‘Listen, my people, I will speak;
Israel, I will testify against you,
for I am God, your God.
I accuse you, lay the charge before you.
‘I find no fault with your sacrifices,
your offerings are always before me.
I do not ask more bullocks from your farms,
nor goats from among your herds.
‘For I own all the beasts of the forest,
beasts in their thousands on my hills.
I know all the birds in the sky,
all that moves in the field belongs to me.
‘Were I hungry, I would not tell you,
for I own the world and all it holds.
Do you think I eat the flesh of bulls,
or drink the blood of goats?
‘Pay your sacrifice of thanksgiving to God
and render him your votive offerings.
Call on me in the day of distress.
I will free you and you shall honour me.’
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.
Call on me in the day of trouble, and I will come to free you.
________
Psalm 49 (50):16-23
A sacrifice of thanksgiving will honour me.
But God says to the wicked:
‘But how can you recite my commandments
and take my covenant on your lips,
you who despise my law
and throw my words to the winds?
‘You who see a thief and go with him;
who throw in your lot with adulterers,
who unbridle your mouth for evil
and whose tongue is plotting crime,
‘you who sit and malign your brother
and slander your own mother’s son.
You do this, and should I keep silence?
Do you think that I am like you?
‘Mark this, you who never think of God,
lest I seize you and you cannot escape;
a sacrifice of thanksgiving honours me
and I will show God’s salvation to the upright.’
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.
A sacrifice of thanksgiving will honour me.
Psalm-prayer
Father, accept us as a sacrifice of praise, so that we may go through life unburdened by sin, walking in the way of salvation, and always giving thanks to you.
Or:
Father, because Jesus, your servant, became obedient even unto death, his sacrifice was greater than all holocausts of old. Accept the sacrifice of praise we offer you through him, and may we show the effects of it in our lives by striving to do your will until our whole life becomes adoration in spirit and truth.
________
℣. We never cease to pray for you.
℟. We ask God to fill you with knowledge of his will.
________
Readings (official one-year cycle)
First Reading
Malachi 3:1-24
The Day of the Lord
Look, I am going to send my messenger to prepare a way before me. And the Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter his Temple; and the angel of the covenant whom you are longing for, yes, he is coming, says the Lord of Hosts. Who will be able to resist the day of his coming? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire and the fullers’ alkali. He will take his seat as refiner and purifier; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and then they will make the offering to the Lord as it should be made. The offering of Judah and Jerusalem will then be welcomed by the Lord as in former days, as in the years of old. I mean to visit you for the judgement and I am going to be a ready witness against sorcerer, adulterer and perjurer, against those who oppress the wage-earner, the widow and the orphan, and who rob the settler of his rights – no need for you to be afraid of me, says the Lord of Hosts.
No; I, the Lord, do not change; and you, sons of Jacob, you are not ruined yet! Since the days of your ancestors you have evaded my statutes and not observed them. Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts. You ask, ‘How are we to return? Can a man cheat God?’ Yet you are cheating me. You ask, ‘How are we cheating you?’ In the matter of tithes and dues. The curse lies on you because you, yes you the whole nation, are cheating me. Bring the full tithes and dues to the storehouse so that there may be food in my house, and then see if I do not open the floodgates of heaven for you and pour out blessing for you in abundance. For your sake I will lay a strict injunction on the locust not to destroy the fruits of your soil nor to make the vine in your fields barren, says the Lord of Hosts. All the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delights, says the Lord of Hosts.
You say harsh things about me, says the Lord. You ask, ‘What have we said against you?’ You say, ‘It is useless to serve God; what is the good of keeping his commands or of walking mournfully before the Lord of Hosts? Now we have reached the point when we call the arrogant blessed; yes, they prosper, these evil-doers; they try God’s patience and yet go free.’ This is what those who fear the Lord used to say to one another. But the Lord took note and heard them: a book of remembrance was written in his presence recording those who fear him and take refuge in his name. On the day which I am preparing, says the Lord of Hosts, they are going to be my own special possession. I will make allowances for them as a man makes allowances for the son who obeys him. Then once again you will see the difference between an upright man and a wicked one, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him. For the day is coming now, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and the evil-doers will be like stubble. The day that is coming is going to burn them up, says the Lord of Hosts, leaving them neither root nor stalk. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will shine out with healing in its rays; you will leap like calves going out to pasture. You will trample on the wicked, who will be like ashes under your feet on the day I am preparing, says the Lord of Hosts.
Remember the Law of my servant Moses to whom at Horeb I prescribed laws and customs for the whole of Israel. Know that I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before my day comes, that great and terrible day. He shall turn the hearts of fathers towards their children and the hearts of children towards their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse.
Responsory
Ml 3:1; Lk 1:76
℟. I shall send my messenger to prepare a way before me,* and the Lord you are seeking will enter his temple, the angel of the covenant for whom you long.
℣. As for you, little child, you shall be called a prophet of the Most High. You shall go ahead of the Lord to prepare his way before him,* and the Lord you are seeking will enter his temple, the angel of the covenant for whom you long.
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Second Reading
From the Second Vatican Council's pastoral constitution "Gaudium et spes" on the Church in the modern world
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last
Only by faith can it be seen how the earthly and heavenly city exist together and interpenetrate each other. This is a mystery at the heart of human history – a history that will continue to be disturbed by sin until the splendour of the children of God is fully revealed.
The Church pursues her own purpose, which is salvation, and communicates the divine life to mankind. In a sense, she also takes the light that comes from that life and reflects and refracts it so that it shines onto every part of the earth. Most of all, she does this by healing and uplifting the dignity of the human person, by strengthening the bonds that hold human society together and by imbuing daily human activity with a deeper meaning and importance. Thus the Church believes that through her individual members and by her community as a whole she can give great gifts to the family of man and make its history more human.
While the Church gives help to the world and receives much from the world, she has only one end in view: that the kingdom of God may come and that the salvation of all mankind may be accomplished. Whatever good the pilgrim people of God has been able to give to the human race during its sojourn on earth, that good comes from the fact that the Church herself is the universal sacrament of salvation; she both manifests the mystery of God’s love for man and puts it into action.
For the word of God, through whom all things were made, became flesh himself so that, being a perfect man, he could save mankind and sum up all things in himself. The Lord is the end towards which human history is heading, a single point at which the yearnings of history and civilisation converge, a single point that is the centre of the human race, the fulfilment of all joys and all desires. He is the one whom the Father has raised from the dead, lifted up and seated at his right hand, making him the judge of the living and the dead. United and given life in his Spirit we journey on our pilgrimage towards the consummation of human history and fulfilment of the plan of God’s love, to bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth.
The Lord himself has said: Very soon now, I shall be with you again, bringing the reward to be given to every man according to what he deserves. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Responsory
℟. God sent his word, and the good news of peace was brought by Jesus Christ.* He is Lord of all men and his is the only name by which we can be saved.
℣. God has appointed him to judge everyone, living or dead.* He is Lord of all men and his is the only name by which we can be saved.
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Let us pray.
Lord God,
open our hearts to your grace.
Let it go before us and be with us,
that we may always be intent upon doing your will.
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.