Saturday 22 January 2022
Saturday of week 2 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
Deuteronomy 16:1-17
The feasts of Israel
Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover for the Lord your God, because it was in the month of Abib that the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. You must sacrifice a passover from your flock or herd for the Lord your God in the place where the Lord chooses to give his name a home. You must not eat leavened bread with this; for seven days you must eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of emergency, for it was in great haste that you came out of the land of Egypt; so you will remember, all the days of your life, the day you came out of the land of Egypt. For seven days no leaven must be found in any house throughout your territory, nor must any of the meat that you sacrifice in the evening of the first day be kept overnight until morning. You may not sacrifice the passover in any of the towns that the Lord your God gives you; but only in the place where the Lord your God chooses to give his name a home, there you must sacrifice the passover, in the evening at sunset, at the hour at which you came out of Egypt. You must cook it and eat it in the place the Lord your God chooses, and in the morning you are to return and go to your tents. For six days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the seventh day there shall be an assembly for the Lord your God; and you must do no work.
You are to count seven weeks, counting these seven weeks from the time you begin to put your sickle into the standing corn. You must then celebrate the feast of weeks for the Lord your God with the gift of a voluntary offering from your hand in proportion to the way that the Lord your God has blessed you. You must rejoice in the presence of the Lord your God in the place where the Lord your God chooses to give his name a home, you and your son and daughter, your serving men and women, the Levite who lives in your towns, the stranger, the orphan and the widow who live among you. Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and carefully observe these laws.
You must celebrate the feast of Tabernacles for seven days, at the time when you gather in the produce of your threshing-floor and winepress. You must rejoice at your feast, you and your son and daughter, your serving men and women, the Levite, the stranger, the orphan and the widow who live in your towns. For seven days you are to celebrate the feast for the Lord your God in the place the Lord chooses, for the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and all your handiwork, and you will be filled with joy.
Three times a year all your menfolk are to appear before the Lord your God in the place he chooses: at the feast of Unleavened Bread, at the feast of Weeks, at the feast of Tabernacles. No one must appear before the Lord empty-handed, but every man must give what he can, in proportion to the blessing that the Lord your God gives you.
Responsory
Dt 16:14-15; Na 1:15
℟. You must rejoice at your feast, you and your son and daughter, the Levite, the stranger, the orphan and the widow,* and the Lord will bless you, and you will be filled with joy.
℣. See on the mountains the feet of the herald who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah,* and the Lord will bless you, and you will be filled with joy.
________
Second Reading
From the treatise "Against the Heresies" by St Irenaeus
The pure offering made by the Church
The Lord taught the Church to make an offering throughout the whole world, and God accepts this as a pure sacrifice. It is not that God needs any sacrifice that we might offer, but that whoever offers something is glorified in the act of offering – if, that is, his gift is accepted. Making a gift to a king shows our honour and loyalty to him – and it was because the Lord wanted us to make our offerings in all innocence and without ulterior motives that he said: When you are offering your gift at the altar, and you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there at the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother, and then come back and offer your gift.
We ought to offer to God the first fruits of his creation, as even Moses said: Do not come empty-handed into the presence of the Lord your God. Thus whatever we are grateful for, we can show our gratitude to God by gifts and receive back the honour that God can give us.
The new law does not abolish offerings. There were offerings under the old law and there are offerings now. Then, sacrifice was made by the people, now it is made by the Church. The only change is that the sacrifice is not now offered by slaves but by free men. The Lord remains one and the same – but an offering made by a slave is of a characteristic kind, and so too is an offering made by a free man: its nature is a sign of his free status. With God, nothing is purposeless, or meaningless, or without a good reason. Thus under the old law they consecrated one tenth of their possessions, while those who have received their freedom set aside everything they have for the Lord’s use. They cheerfully and freely give more than the bare minimum because they have more than the bare minimum of hope. The poor widow put all that she possessed into the Temple treasury.
For we must make an offering to God, and show ourselves in every way grateful to him who made us – in purity of thought, in sincerity of faith, in fervent hope and burning love – as we offer the first fruits of the things he has created and that are his. This offering the Church makes alone to her creator, making it with gratitude from his creation.
For we are offering him the things that are his, preaching our fellowship and union and proclaiming the resurrection of body and soul. Just as bread that comes from the earth, once the words of consecration have been said, is no longer ordinary bread but becomes the Eucharist, made of two things, earthly and heavenly, so our bodies, receiving it, are no longer corruptible but have the hope of resurrection within them.
Responsory
℟. The Law is not a full and faithful model of the real things, it is only a faint outline: it can never, by the same sacrifices which are offered continually, make perfect those who draw near to God.* By a single offering, however, Christ has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
℣. Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.* By a single offering, however, Christ has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
________
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,
God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
________
Let us praise the Lord.
– Thanks be to God.
Copyright © 1996-2022 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.