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Lord, open our lips. And we shall praise your name. Invitatory Psalm. Psalm 94 (95). “Every day, as long as this ‘today’ lasts, keep encouraging one another” (Hebrew 3:13). A mighty God is the Lord: come, let us adore him. A mighty God is the Lord: come, let us adore him. Come, ring out our joy to the Lord; hail the God who saves us. Let us come before him, giving thanks, with songs let us hail the Lord. A mighty God is the Lord: come, let us adore him. A mighty God is the Lord, a great king above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his. To him belongs the sea, for he made it and the dry land shaped by his hands. A mighty God is the Lord: come, let us adore him. Come in; let us bow and bend low; let us kneel before the God who made us: for he is our God and we the people who belong to his pasture, the flock that is led by his hand. A mighty God is the Lord: come, let us adore him. O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the desert when your fathers put me to the test; when they tried me, though they saw my work. A mighty God is the Lord: come, let us adore him. For forty years I was wearied of these people and I said: “Their hearts are astray, these people do not know my ways.” Then I took an oath in my anger: “Never shall they enter my rest.”’ A mighty God is the Lord: come, let us adore him. 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 mighty God is the Lord: come, let us adore him. ________ Hymn. O God of truth and Lord of power, whose word their course to things assigns, whose splendour lights the morning hour, whose fiery sun at noonday shines: Within us quench the flames of strife, the harmful heat of passion quell; give health of body to our life and give true peace of soul as well. In this, most loving Father, hear, and Christ, co-equal Son, our prayer: with Holy Ghost, one Trinity, you reign for all eternity. ________ Psalm 101 (102):2-12. Prayers and vows of an exile. “God comforts us in all our sorrows” (2 Corinthians 1:4). Let my cry come to you, Lord: do not hide your face from me. O Lord, listen to my prayer and let my cry for help reach you. Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Turn your ear towards me and answer me quickly when I call. For my days are vanishing like smoke, my bones burn away like a fire. My heart is withered like the grass. I forget to eat my bread. I cry with all my strength and my skin clings to my bones. I have become like a pelican in the wilderness like an owl in desolate places. I lie awake and I moan like some lonely bird on a roof. All day long my foes revile me; those who hate me use my name as a curse. The bread I eat is ashes; my drink is mingled with tears. In your anger, Lord, and your fury you have lifted me up and thrown me down. My days are like a passing shadow and I wither away like the grass. 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. Let my cry come to you, Lord: do not hide your face from me. ________ Psalm 101 (102):13-23. Turn, Lord, to the prayers of the helpless. But you, O Lord, will endure for ever and your name from age to age. You will arise and have mercy on Sion: for this is the time to have mercy, (yes, the time appointed has come) for your servants love her very stones, are moved with pity even for her dust. The nations shall fear the name of the Lord and all the earth’s kings your glory, when the Lord shall build up Sion again and appear in all his glory. Then he will turn to the prayers of the helpless; he will not despise their prayers. Let this be written for ages to come that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord; for the Lord leaned down from his sanctuary on high. He looked down from heaven to the earth that he might hear the groans of the prisoners and free those condemned to die. The sons of your servants shall dwell untroubled and their race shall endure before you, that the name of the Lord may be proclaimed in Sion and his praise in the heart of Jerusalem, when peoples and kingdoms are gathered together to pay their homage 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. Turn, Lord, to the prayers of the helpless. ________ Psalm 101 (102):24-29. You founded the earth, Lord, and the heavens are the work of your hands. He has broken my strength in mid-course; he has shortened the days of my life. I say to God: ‘Do not take me away before my days are complete, you, whose days last from age to age. ‘Long ago you founded the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish but you will remain. They will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like clothes that are changed. But you neither change, nor have an end.’ 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. You founded the earth, Lord, and the heavens are the work of your hands. Psalm-prayer. Lord, you live in the hearts of your saints, and so have built up Zion. May you always show your greatness through their good works. Or: You remain for ever, Father, undisturbed by change, while our days vanish like shadows and our lives wear out like a garment. Although our lives in this world come to an end, help us to live in Christ’s endless life, and so attain the heavenly Jerusalem, our lasting home. ________ ℣. Give heed, my people, to my teaching. ℟. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth. Readings (official one-year cycle). First Reading. 1 Samuel 17:57-18:9,20-30. Saul’s envy towards David. Responsory Ps 56:1-3,13 ℟. Have mercy on me, God, men crush me; they fight me all day long and oppress me;* I will trust in you. ℣. You rescued my soul from death, you kept my feet from stumbling.* I will trust in you. ________ Second Reading. A treatise on Christian Perfection by St Gregory of Nyssa. Christ should be manifest in our whole life. The life of the Christian has three distinguishing aspects: deeds, words and thought. Thought comes first, then words, since our words express openly the interior conclusions of the mind. Finally, after thoughts and words, comes action, for our deeds carry out what the mind has conceived. So when one of these results in our acting or speaking or thinking, we must make sure that all our thoughts, words and deeds are controlled by the divine ideal, the revelation of Christ. For then our thoughts, words and deeds will not fall short of the nobility of their implications. What then must we do, we who have been found worthy of the name of Christ? Each of us must examine his thoughts, words and deeds, to see whether they are directed towards Christ or are turned away from him. This examination is carried out in various ways. Our deeds or our thoughts or our words are not in harmony with Christ if they issue from passion. They then bear the mark of the enemy who smears the pearl of the heart with the slime of passion, dimming and even destroying the lustre of the precious stone. On the other hand, if they are free from and untainted by every passionate inclination, they are directed towards Christ, the author and source of peace. He is like a pure, untainted stream. If you draw from him the thoughts in your mind and the inclinations of your heart, you will show a likeness to Christ, your source and origin, as the gleaming water in a jar resembles the flowing water from which it was obtained. For the purity of Christ and the purity that is manifest in our hearts are identical. Christ’s purity, however, is the fountainhead; ours has its source in him and flows out of him. Our life is stamped with the beauty of his thought. The inner and the outer man are harmonised in a kind of music. The mind of Christ is the controlling influence that inspires us to moderation and goodness in our behaviour. As I see it, Christian perfection consists in this: sharing the titles which express the meaning of Christ’s name, we bring out this meaning in our minds, our prayers and our way of life. Responsory ℟. Whatever you do in word or deed,* do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. ℣. None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.* Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. ________ Let us pray. Lord God, teach us at all times to fear and love your holy name, for you never withdraw your guiding hand from those you establish in your love. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, (one) God, for ever and ever. Amen. ________ Let us praise the Lord. – Thanks be to God.