Jul 31, Office of Readings for Wednesday of the 17th week of Ordinary Time

Divine Office Office of Readings

Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. III:
Ordinary: 651
Proper of Seasons: 553
Psalter: Wednesday, Week I, 744

Christian Prayer:
Does not contain Office of Readings.

Office of Readings for Wednesday in Ordinary Time

God, come to my assistance.
— Lord, make haste to help me.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
— as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Alleluia.

HYMN

Brightness of the Father's glory
Springing from eternal light,
Source of light by light engendered.
Day enlightening every day.

In your ever-lasting radiance
Shine upon us, Christ, true sun,
Bringing life to mind and body
Through the Holy Spirit's pow'r.

Father of unfading glory.
Rich in grace and Strong to save.
Hear our prayers and come to save us,
Keep us far from sinful ways.

Dawn is drawing ever nearer,
Dawn that brings us all we seek,
Son who dwells within the Father,
Father uttering one Word.

Glory be to God the Father.
Glory to his Only Son,
Glory now and through all ages
To the Spirit Advocate.

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"Brightness of the Father's Glory" by Gabe Bouck, Rebecca Hincke • Available for Purchase • Musical Score • Title: Brightness of the Father's Glory; Text: Mount Saint Bernard Abbey; Tune: SHARON by William Boyce, 1710-1799; Artists: Gabe Bouck and Rebecca Hincke; (c) 2016 Surgeworks, Inc. • Albums that contain this Hymn: Hymns and Chants of Divine Office, Vol. 4

PSALMODY

Ant. 1 I love you, Lord; you are my strength.

Psalm 18:2-30
Thanksgiving for salvation and victory
At that time there was a violent earthquake (Revelation 11:15).

I

I love you, Lord, my strength,
my rock, my fortress, my savior.
My God is the rock where I take refuge;
my shield, my mighty help, my stronghold.

The Lord is worthy of all praise;
when I call I am saved from my foes.

The waves of death rose about me;
the torrents of destruction assailed me;
the snares of the grave entangled me;
the traps of death confronted me.

In my anguish I called to the Lord;
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came to his ears.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
— as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Ant. I love you, Lord; you are my strength.

Ant. 2 The Lord has saved me; he wanted me for his own.

II

Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the mountains were shaken to their base:
they reeled at his terrible anger.
Smoke came forth from his nostrils
and scorching fire from his mouth:
coals were set ablaze by its heat.

He lowered the heavens and came down,
a black cloud under his feet.
He came enthroned on the cherubim,
he flew on the wings of the wind.

He made the darkness his covering,
the dark waters of the clouds, his tent.
A brightness shone out before him
with hailstones and flashes of fire.

The Lord thundered in the heavens;
the Most High let his voice be heard.
He shot his arrows, scattered the foe,
flashed his lightnings and put them to flight.

The bed of the ocean was revealed;
the foundations of the world were laid bare
at the thunder of your threat, O Lord,
at the blast of the breath of your anger.

From on high he reached down and seized me;
he drew me forth from the mighty waters.
He snatched me from my powerful foe,
from my enemies whose strength I could not match.

They assailed me in the day of my misfortune,
but the Lord was my support.
He brought me forth into freedom,
he saved me because he loved me.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
— as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Ant. The Lord has saved me; he wanted me for his own.

Ant. 3 Lord, kindle a light for my guidance and scatter my darkness.

III

He rewarded me because I was just,
repaid me, for my hands were clean,
for I have kept the way of the Lord
and have not fallen away from my God.

For his judgments are all before me:
I have never neglected his commands.
I have always been upright before him;
I have kept myself from guilt.

He repaid me because I was just
and my hands were clean in his eyes.
You are loving with those who love you:
you show yourself perfect with the perfect.

With the sincere you show yourself sincere,
but the cunning you outdo in cunning.
For you save a humble people
but humble the eyes that are proud.

You, O Lord, are my lamp,
my God who lightens my darkness.
With you I can break through any barrier,
with my God I can scale any wall.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
— as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Psalm-prayer

Lord God, our strength and salvation, put in us the flame of your love and make our love for you grow to a perfect love which reaches to our neighbor.

Ant. Lord, kindle a light for my guidance and scatter my darkness.

Sacred Silence (indicated by a bell) – a moment to reflect and receive in our hearts the full resonance of the voice of the Holy Spirit and to unite our personal prayer more closely with the word of God and public voice of the Church.

All wondered at the words of grace.
— Which came from the mouth of the Lord.

READINGS

First reading
From the second letter of the apostle Paul to the Corinthians 10:1–11:6
Paul’s defense

I, Paul, exhort you by the meekness and kindness of Christ, I who (you say) when present in your midst am lowly, but when absent am bold toward you. I beg you that when I am there, I may not have to act boldly, with that assurance I might dare to use courageously against certain ones who accuse us of weak human behavior. We do indeed live in the body but we do not wage war with human resources. The weapons of our warfare are not merely human. They possess God’s power for the destruction of strongholds. We demolish sophistries and every proud pretension that raises itself against the knowledge of God; we likewise bring every thought into captivity to make it obedient to Christ. We are ready to punish disobedience in anyone else once your own obedience is perfect.

You view things superficially. If anyone is convinced that he belongs to Christ, let him reflect on this: he may belong to Christ but just as much do we. If I find I must make a few further claims about the power the Lord has given us for your upbuilding and not for your destruction, this will not embarrass me in the least. At the same time, I do not wish to intimidate you with my letters. His letters, they say, are severe and forceful, but when he is here in person he is unimpressive and his word makes no great impact. Well, let such people give this some thought, that what we are by word, in the letters during our absence, that we mean to be in action when we are present.

We are not so bold, of course, as to classify or compare ourselves with certain people who recommend themselves. Since people like that are their own appraisers, comparing themselves with one another, they only demonstrate their ignorance. When we make claims we will not go over the mark but will stay within the bounds the God of moderation has set for us‚ – leading us to you. We are not overreaching ourselves, as we should be doing if we had not bothered to come to you. But indeed we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ. We do not boast immoderately of the work of others; we hope that as your faith grows our influence may also grow among you and overflow. Following the rule laid down for us, we hope to preach the gospel even beyond your borders without having to boast of work already done by another in his allotted territory. “Let him who would boast, boast in the Lord.” It is not the man who recommends himself who is approved but the man whom the Lord recommends.

You must endure a little of my folly. Put up with me, I beg you! I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God himself, since I have given you in marriage to one husband, presenting you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

My fear is that, just as the serpent seduced Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted and you may fall away from your sincere and complete devotion to Christ. I say this because, when someone comes preaching another Jesus than the one we preached, or when you receive a different spirit than the one you have received, or a gospel other than the gospel you accepted, you seem to endure it quite well. I consider myself inferior to the “super-apostles” in nothing. I may be unskilled in speech but I know that I am not lacking in knowledge. We have made this evident to you in every conceivable way.

RESPONSORY 2 Corinthians 10:3-4; Ephesians 6:16, 17

Though we live in this world,
we do not rely solely on the resources of the world to do battle.
— Our warfare is not waged with the weapons of this world.

We arm ourselves with the shield of faith
and with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
— Our warfare is not waged with the weapons of this world.

Second reading
From a catechetical instruction by Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop
The Church as the assembly of the people of God

The Church is called Catholic or universal because it has spread throughout the entire world, from one end of the earth to the other. Again, it is called Catholic because it teaches fully and unfailingly all the doctrines which ought to be brought to men’s knowledge, whether concerned with visible or invisible things, with the realities of heaven or the things of earth. Another reason for the name Catholic is that the Church brings under religious obedience all classes of men, rulers and subjects, learned and unlettered. Finally, it deserves the title Catholic because it heals and cures unrestrictedly every type of sin that can be committed in soul or in body, and because it possesses within itself every kind of virtue that can be named, whether exercised in actions or in words or in some kind of spiritual charism.

It is most aptly called a church, which means an “assembly of those called out,” because it “calls out” all men and gathers them together, just as the Lord says in Leviticus: Assemble all the congregation at the door of the tent of meeting. It is worth noting also that the word “assemble” is used for the first time in Scriptures at this moment when the Lord appoints Aaron high priest. So in Deuteronomy God says to Moses: Assemble the people before me and let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me. There is a further mention of the assembly in the passage about the tablets of the Law: And on them were written all the words which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire, on the day of the assembly; it is as though he had said, even more clearly, “on the day you were called out by God and gathered together.” So too the psalmist says: I will give thanks to you in the great assembly, O Lord; in the mighty throng I will praise you.

Long ago the psalmist sang: Bless God in the assembly; bless the Lord, you who are Israel’s sons. But now the Savior has built a second holy assembly, our Christian Church, from the Gentiles. It was of this that he spoke to Peter: On this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.

Now that the single church which was in Judea has been rejected, the churches of Christ are already multiplying throughout the world, and of them it is said in the psalms: Sing a new song to the Lord, let his praise be sung in the assembly of the saints. Taking up the same theme the prophet says to the Jews: I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts; and immediately he adds: For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is glorified among the nations. Of this holy Catholic Church Paul writes to Timothy: That you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.

RESPONSORY 1 Peter 2:9-10

You are a chosen race, a holy nation,
a people God has claimed as his own.
— Proclaim the marvelous works of him
who has called us out of darkness into his own wonderful light.

Once you were not a people
but now you are the people of God.
— Proclaim the marvelous works of him
who has called us out of darkness into his own wonderful light.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

O God,
protector of those who hope in you,
without whom nothing has firm foundation, nothing is holy,
bestow in abundance your mercy upon us and grant that,
with you as our ruler and guide, we may use the good things that pass
in such a way as to hold fast even now to those that ever endure.
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.

ACCLAMATION (at least in the communal celebration)

Let us praise the Lord.
— And give him thanks.