Roman Breviary

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, * and to the Holy Ghost.

As it was in the beginning, is now, * and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Alleluia.

Come let us praise the Lord with joy: let us joyfully sing to God our saviour. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; and make a joyful noise to him with psalms.

For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. For the Lord will not cast off his people: for in his hand are all the ends of the earth, and the heights of the mountains are his.

For the sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. (genuflect) Come let us adore and fall down: and weep before the Lord that made us: For he is the Lord our God: and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.

Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts: As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness: where your fathers tempted me, they proved me, and saw my works.

Forty years long was I offended with that generation, and I said: These always err in heart. And these men have not known my ways: so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.

Hail day! whereon the One in Three

First formed the earth by sure decree,

The day its Maker rose again,

And vanquished death, and burst our chain.

Away with sleep and slothful ease

We raise our hearts and bend our knees,

And early seek the Lord of all,

Obedient to the Prophet's call.

That He may hearken to our prayer,

Stretch forth His strong right arm to spare,

And ev'ry past offense forgiven,

Restore us to our home in heaven.

Assembled here this holy day,

This holiest hour we raise the lay,

And O that He to whom we sing,

May now reward our offering!

O Father of unclouded light!

Keep us this day as in thy sight,

In word and deed that we may be

From ev'ry touch of evil free.

That this our body's mortal frame

May know no sin, and fear no shame,

Nor fire hereafter be the end

Of passions which our bosom rend.

Redeemer of the world, we pray

That thou wouldst wash our sins away,

And give us, of Thy boundless grace,

The blessings of the heavenly place.

Most Holy Father, hear our cry,

Through Jesus Christ our Lord most High

Who, with the Holy Ghost and thee

Shall live and reign eternally.

Amen.

1:1 Blessed is the man ‡ who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, * nor sat in the chair of pestilence.

1:2 But his will is in the law of the Lord, * and on his law he shall meditate day and night.

1:3 And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, * which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season.

1:3 And his leaf shall not fall off: * and all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper.

1:4 Not so the wicked, not so: * but like the dust, which the wind driveth from the face of the earth.

1:5 Therefore the wicked shall not rise again in judgment: * nor sinners in the council of the just.

1:6 For the Lord knoweth the way of the just: * and the way of the wicked shall perish.

2:1 Why have the Gentiles raged, * and the people devised vain things?

2:2 The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes met together, * against the Lord and against his Christ.

2:3 Let us break their bonds asunder: * and let us cast away their yoke from us.

2:4 He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them: * and the Lord shall deride them.

2:5 Then shall he speak to them in his anger, * and trouble them in his rage.

2:6 But I am appointed king by him over Sion his holy mountain, * preaching his commandment.

2:7 The Lord hath said to me: * Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.

2:8 Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, * and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession.

2:9 Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, * and shalt break them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

2:10 And now, O ye kings, understand: * receive instruction, you that judge the earth.

2:11 Serve ye the Lord with fear: * and rejoice unto him with trembling.

2:12 Embrace discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry, * and you perish from the just way.

2:13 When his wrath shall be kindled in a short time, * blessed are all they that trust in him.

3:2 Why, O Lord, are they multiplied that afflict me? * many are they who rise up against me.

3:3 Many say to my soul: * There is no salvation for him in his God.

3:4 But thou, O Lord art my protector, * my glory, and the lifter up of my head.

3:5 I have cried to the Lord with my voice: * and he hath heard me from his holy hill.

3:6 I have slept and taken my rest: * and I have risen up, because the Lord hath protected me.

3:7 I will not fear thousands of the people, surrounding me: * arise, O Lord; save me, O my God.

3:8 For thou hast struck all them who are my adversaries without cause: * thou hast broken the teeth of sinners.

3:9 Salvation is of the Lord: * and thy blessing is upon thy people.

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Lesson from the book of Osee

1 The word of the Lord, that came to Osee the son of Beeri, in the days of Ozias, Joathan, Achaz, and Ezechias kings of Juda, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joas king of Israel.

2 The beginning of the Lord's speaking by Osee: and the Lord said to Osee: Go, take thee a wife of fornications, and have of her children of fornications: for the land by fornication shall depart from the Lord.

3 So he went, and took Gomer the daughter of Debelaim: and she conceived and bore him a son.

4 And the Lord said to him: Call his name Jezrahel: for yet a little while, and I will visit the blood of Jezrahel upon the house of Jehu, and I will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.

5 And in that day I will break in pieces the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezrahel.

6 And she conceived again, and bore a daughter, and he said to him: Call her name, Without mercy: for I will not add any more to have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly forget them.

7 And I will have mercy on the house of Juda, and I will save them by the Lord their God: and I will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by horses, nor by horsemen.

8 And she weaned her that was called Without mercy. And she conceived, and bore a son.

9 And he said: Call his name, Not my people: for you are not my people, and I will not be yours.

10 And the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, that is without measure, and shall not be numbered. And it shall be in the place where it shall be said to them: You are not my people: it shall be said to them: Ye are the sons of the living God.

11 And the children of Juda, and the children of Israel shall be gathered together: and they shall appoint themselves one head, and shall come up out of the land: for great is the day of Jezrahel.

8:2 O Lord our Lord, * how admirable is thy name in the whole earth!

8:2 For thy magnificence is elevated * above the heavens.

8:3 Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise, because of thy enemies, * that thou mayst destroy the enemy and the avenger.

8:4 For I will behold thy heavens, the works of thy fingers: * the moon and the stars which thou hast founded.

8:5 What is man that thou art mindful of him? * or the son of man that thou visitest him?

8:6 Thou hast made him a little less than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honour: * and hast set him over the works of thy hands.

8:8 Thou hast subjected all things under his feet, * all sheep and oxen: moreover the beasts also of the fields.

8:9 The birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, * that pass through the paths of the sea.

8:10 O Lord our Lord, * how admirable is thy name in all the earth!

9:2 I will give praise to thee, O Lord, with my whole heart: * I will relate all thy wonders.

9:3 I will be glad and rejoice in thee: * I will sing to thy name, O thou most high.

9:4 When my enemy shall be turned back: * they shall be weakened and perish before thy face.

9:5 For thou hast maintained my judgment and my cause: * thou hast sat on the throne, who judgest justice.

9:6 Thou hast rebuked the Gentiles, and the wicked one hath perished: * thou hast blotted out their name for ever and ever.

9:7 The swords of the enemy have failed unto the end: * and their cities thou hast destroyed.

9:7 Their memory hath perished with a noise. * But the Lord remaineth for ever.

9:8 He hath prepared his throne in judgment: * And he shall judge the world in equity, he shall judge the people in justice.

9:10 And the Lord is become a refuge for the poor: * a helper in due time in tribulation.

9:11 And let them trust in thee who know thy name: * for thou hast not forsaken them that seek thee, O Lord.

9:12 Sing ye to the Lord, who dwelleth in Sion: * declare his ways among the Gentiles.

9:13 For requiring their blood he hath remembered them: * he hath not forgotten the cry of the poor.

9:14 Have mercy on me, O Lord: * see my humiliation which I suffer from my enemies.

9:15 Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death, * that I may declare all thy praises in the gates of the daughter of Sion.

9:16 I will rejoice in thy salvation: * the Gentiles have stuck fast in the destruction which they have prepared.

9:16 Their foot hath been taken * in the very snare which they hid.

9:17 The Lord shall be known when he executeth judgments: * the sinner hath been caught in the works of his own hands.

9:18 The wicked shall be turned into hell, * all the nations that forget God.

9:19 For the poor man shall not be forgotten to the end: * the patience of the poor shall not perish for ever.

9:20 Arise, O Lord, let not man be strengthened: * let the Gentiles be judged in thy sight.

9:21 Appoint, O Lord, a lawgiver over them: * that the Gentiles may know themselves to be but men.

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

From the Book Upon the City of God, written by St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo.

AS to the Prophet Hosea, the deeper his meaning, the harder to pierce. But somewhat may be gotten out of him, and, as I promised, I will give it here. He saith And it shall come to pass that, in the place where it shall be said unto them, Ye are not My people, there it shall be said unto them Ye are the sons of the living God. This was understood even by the Apostles as a Prophetic witness to the call of the Gentiles, who erst had not been God's people. Rom. ix. 24-26.

And since the converted Gentiles are the spiritual children of Abraham, and are therefore rightly called Israelites, therefore he goeth on, and saith: Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land. If we went on expounding this, we should water down the flavour of the prophetic draught. Let there be remembered, however, that Corner Stone, and let there be acknowledged those twain walls, (which It bindeth in one,) the Jews and the Gentiles, one called the children of Judah and the other the children of Israel, bound together under One Head, and coming up out of the land.

Concerning them that are now Israelites according to the flesh, that will not now believe in Christ, but shall believe hereafter, (that is, their children shall believe, for these shall die, and go to their own place,) this same Prophet giveth witness, where he saith The children of Israel shall abide many days without a King, and without a Prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an Altar, and without a Priest, and without oracles. iii. 4. To whom is it not manifest that such is the state of the Jews now

9:22 Why, O Lord, ‡ hast thou retired afar off? * why dost thou slight us in our wants, in the time of trouble?

9:23 Whilst the wicked man is proud, the poor is set on fire: * they are caught in the counsels which they devise.

9:24 For the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul: * and the unjust man is blessed.

9:25 The sinner hath provoked the Lord, * according to the multitude of his wrath he will not seek him.

9:26 God is not before his eyes: * his ways are filthy at all times.

9:26 Thy judgments are removed from his sight: * he shall rule over all his enemies.

9:27 For he hath said in his heart: * I shall not be moved from generation to generation, and shall be without evil.

9:28 His mouth is full of cursing, and of bitterness, and of deceit: * under his tongue are labour and sorrow.

9:29 He sitteth in ambush with the rich, in private places, * that he may kill the innocent.

9:30 His eyes are upon the poor man: * he lieth in wait, in secret, like a lion in his den.

9:30 He lieth in ambush, that he may catch the poor man: * so catch the poor, whilst he draweth him to him.

9:31 In his net he will bring him down, * he will crouch and fall, when he shall have power over the poor.

9:32 For he hath said in his heart: God hath forgotten, * he hath turned away his face, not to see to the end.

9:33 Arise, O Lord God, ‡ let thy hand be exalted: * forget not the poor.

9:34 Wherefore hath the wicked provoked God? * for he hath said in his heart: He will not require it.

9:35 Thou seest it, for thou considerest labour and sorrow: * that thou mayst deliver them into thy hands.

9:35 To thee is the poor man left: * thou wilt be a helper to the orphan.

9:36 Break thou the arm of the sinner and of the malignant: * his sin shall be sought, and shall not be found.

9:37 The Lord shall reign to eternity, yea, for ever and ever: * ye Gentiles shall perish from his land.

9:38 The Lord hath heard the desire of the poor: * thy ear hath heard the preparation of their heart.

9:39 To judge for the fatherless and for the humble, * that man may no more presume to magnify himself upon earth.

10:2 In the Lord I put my trust: how then do you say to my soul: * Get thee away from hence to the mountain, like a sparrow?

10:3 For, lo, the wicked have bent their bow: they have prepared their arrows in the quiver, * to shoot in the dark the upright of heart.

10:4 For they have destroyed the things which thou hast made: * but what has the just man done?

10:5 The Lord is in his holy temple, * the Lord’s throne is in heaven.

10:5 His eyes look on the poor man: * his eyelids examine the sons of men.

10:6 The Lord trieth the just and the wicked: * but he that loveth iniquity, hateth his own soul.

10:7 He shall rain snares upon sinners: * fire and brimstone, and storms of winds, shall be the portion of their cup.

10:8 For the Lord is just, and hath loved justice: * his countenance hath beheld righteousness.

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew

At that time, Jesus said to the people a parable: The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. And so on.

Homily by St. Jerome, Priest at Bethlehem.

The kingdom of heaven is the proclamation of the Gospel, and that knowledge of the Scriptures, which leadeth unto life, and whereof it is said to the Jews: The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. Matth. xxi. 43 Therefore is this kingdom like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. By the man that sowed it in his field, many understand to be meant the Saviour, because He is the Sower That soweth in the souls of believers; others understand every man that soweth good seed in his own field, that is, in himself and in his own heart.

Who is he that soweth, but our own mind and soul, which take the grain from preaching, and by nourishing it in the soil, cause it to sprout in the field of our own breast? The preaching of the Gospel is the least of all doctrines. He that preacheth, for his first lesson, God made man, Christ dead, and the stumbling-block of the Cross, receiveth at first but little credit. Compare such teaching as this with the doctrines of the Philosophers, with their books, their magnificent eloquence, and their rounded sentences, and thou shalt see how the grain of the Gospel, when it is sown, is the humblest of all seeds.

But when the doctrines of men grow up, there is therein nothing piercing, nothing healthy, nothing life-giving. The plant is drooping, and delicate, and soft. There are herbs and grass whereof it may truly be said that the grass withereth and the flower fadeth. Isa. xl. 8. But the grain of Gospel seed, though, when it was sown, it seemed to be the least of all seeds, when once it is rooted in the soul of man, or in the whole world, groweth not into an herb, but becometh a tree so that the birds of the air (whereby we may understand, either the souls of believers, or the (angelic) powers bound to the service of God,) come and lodge in the branches thereof. I consider that the branches of the Gospel tree, which groweth from the grain of mustard-seed, are the diverse developments of doctrine, on which the birds above mentioned find resting-places.

We praise thee, O God, * we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.

All the earth doth worship thee, * the Father everlasting.

To thee all Angels cry aloud, * the Heavens, and all the Powers therein.

To thee Cherubim and Seraphim * continually do cry.

bow head Holy, Holy, Holy * Lord God of Sabaoth;

Heaven and earth are full * of the Majesty of thy glory.

The glorious company of the Apostles * praise thee.

The goodly fellowship of the Prophets * praise thee.

The noble army of Martyrs * praise thee.

The holy Church throughout all the world * doth acknowledge thee;

The Father, * of an infinite Majesty.

Thine honourable, true, * and only Son;

Also the Holy Ghost, * the Comforter.

Thou art the King of Glory, * O Christ.

Thou art the everlasting * Son of the Father.

During the following verse all make a profound bow: When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man, * thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb.

When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, * thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.

Thou sittest at the right hand of God, * in the glory of the Father.

We believe that thou shalt come * to be our Judge.

Kneel for the following verse We therefore pray thee, help thy servants, * whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious Blood.

Make them to be numbered with thy Saints, * in glory everlasting.

O Lord, save thy people, * and bless thine heritage.

Govern them, * and lift them up for ever.

Day by day * we magnify thee;

During the following verse, by local custom, all make a profound bow. And we worship thy Name * ever, world without end.

Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us * this day without sin.

O Lord, have mercy upon us, * have mercy upon us.

O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us, * as our trust is in thee.

O Lord, in thee have I trusted, * let me never be confounded.

Let us pray.

Grant us, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, ever to think such things as be reasonable, and in every word and work of ours, to do always that is well pleasing in thy sight.

Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.