May 15, Office of Readings for Thursday of the 4th week of Easter

Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. II:
Ordinary: 1045
Proper of Seasons: 785
Psalter: Thursday, Week IV, 1570

Office of Readings for Thursday in Week 4 of Easter

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.

PSALMODY

Ant. 1 Their own strength could not save them; it was your strength and the light of your face, alleluia.

Psalm 44
The misfortunes of God’s people
We triumph over all these things through him who loved us (Romans 8:37).

I

We heard with our own ears, O God,
our fathers have told us the story
of the things you did in their days,
you yourself, in days long ago.

To plant them you uprooted the nations:
to let them spread you laid peoples low.
No sword of their own won the land;
no arm of their own brought them victory.
It was your right hand, your arm
and the light of your face: for you loved them.

It is you, my king, my God,
who granted victories to Jacob.
Through you we beat down our foes;
in your name we trampled our aggressors.

For it was not in my bow that I trusted
nor yet was I saved by my sword:
it was you who saved us from our foes,
it was you who put our foes to shame.
All day long our boast was in God,
and we praised your name without ceasing.

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. Their own strength could not save them; it was your strength and the light of your face, alleluia.

Ant. 2 Turn back to the Lord; he will not hide his face, alleluia.

II

Yet now you have rejected us, disgraced us:
you no longer go forth with our armies.
You make us retreat from the foe
and our enemies plunder us at will.

You make us like sheep for the slaughter
and scatter us among the nations.
You sell your own people for nothing
and make no profit by the sale.

You make us the taunt of our neighbors,
the laughing stock of all who are near.
Among the nations, you make us a byword,
among the peoples a thing of derision.

All day long my disgrace is before me:
my face is covered with shame
at the voice of the taunter, the scoffer,
at the sight of the foe and avenger.

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. Turn back to the Lord; he will not hide his face, alleluia.

Ant. 3 Arise, Lord, do not abandon us for ever, alleluia.

III

This befell us though we had not forgotten you;
though we had not been false to your covenant,
though we had not withdrawn our hearts;
though our feet had not strayed from your path.
Yet you have crushed us in a place of sorrows
and covered us with the shadow of death.

Had we forgotten the name of our God
or stretched out our hands to another god
would not God have found this out,
he who knows the secrets of the heart?
It is for you that we face death all day long
and are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Awake, O Lord, why do you sleep?
Arise, do not reject us for ever!
Why do you hide your face
and forget our oppression and misery?

For we are brought down low to the dust;
our body lies prostrate on the earth.
Stand up and come to our help!
Redeem us because of your love!

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 Jesus, you foretold that we would share in the persecutions that brought you to a violent death. The Church formed at the cost of your precious blood is even now conformed to your Passion; may it be transformed, now and eternally, by the power of your resurrection.

Ant. Arise, Lord, do not abandon us for ever, alleluia.

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.

God has raised the Lord to life, alleluia.
— Through his power he will also raise us up, alleluia.

READINGS

First reading
From the book of Revelation
15:5—16:21
The seven bowls of God’s wrath

I, John, had another vision. The heavenly sanctuary which is the tent of witness opened up, and out of it came the seven angels holding the seven plagues. The angels were dressed in pure white linen, each with a sash of gold about his breast. One of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of the God who lives forever and ever. Then the sanctuary became so filled with the smoke which arose from God’s glory and might that no one could enter it until the seven plagues of the seven angels had come to an end.

I heard a mighty voice from the sanctuary say to the seven angels, “Go and pour out upon the earth the seven bowls of God’s wrath!”

The first angel went out, and when he poured out his bowl on the earth, severe and festering boils broke out on the men who had accepted the mark of the beast or worshiped its image.

The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea. The sea turned to blood like that of a corpse, and every creature living in the sea died.

The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs. These also turned to blood. Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters cry out:

“You are just, O Holy One
who is and who was,
in passing this sentence!
To those who shed the blood of saints and prophets,
you have given blood to drink;
they deserve it.”
Then I heard the altar cry out:
“Yes, Lord God Almighty,
your judgments are true and just!”

The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun. He was commissioned to burn men with fire. Those who were scorched by the intense heat blasphemed the name of God who had power to send these plagues, but they did not repent or give him due honor.

The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast. Its kingdom was plunged into darkness; men bit their tongues in pain and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their suffering and their boils. But they did not turn away from their wicked deeds.

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates. Its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the East. I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet; these spirits were devils who worked prodigies. They went out to assemble all the kings of the earth for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. (Be on your guard! I come like a thief. Happy the man who stays wide awake and fully clothed for fear of going naked and exposed for all to see!) The devils then assembled the kings in a place called in Hebrew “Armageddon.”

Finally, the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the empty air. From the throne in the sanctuary came a loud voice which said, “It is finished!” There followed lightning flashes and peals of thunder, then a violent earthquake. Such was its violence that there has never been one like it in all the time men have lived on the earth. The great city was split into three parts, and the other Gentile cities also fell. God remembered Babylon the great, giving her the cup filled with the blazing wine of his wrath. Every island fled and mountains disappeared. Giant hailstones like huge weights came crashing down on mankind from the sky, and men blasphemed God for the plague of hailstones, because this plague was so severe.

RESPONSORY Matthew 24:43; Revelation 16:15; 1 Thessalonians 5:3

If the head of the household knew when the thief was coming, surely he would keep watch.
— See, I come like a thief, says the Lord; blessed is he who keeps watch, alleluia.

Just when people are saying: Now peace and security are ours, suddenly ruin will come upon them.
— See, I come like a thief, says the Lord; blessed is he who keeps watch, alleluia.

Second Reading
From a treatise on John by Saint Augustine, bishop
The new commandment

A new commandment I give you, that you love one another. This commandment that he is giving them is a new one, the Lord Jesus tells his disciples. Yet was it not contained in the Old Law, where it is written: You shall love your neighbor as yourself? Why does the Lord call it new when it is clearly so old? Or is the commandment new because it divests us of our former selves and clothes us with the new man? Love does indeed renew the man who hears, or rather obeys its command; but only that love which Jesus distinguished from a natural love by the qualification: As I have loved you.

This is the kind of love that renews us. When we love as he loved us we become new men, heirs of the new covenant and singers of the new song. My brothers, this was the love that even in bygone days renewed the holy men, the patriarchs and prophets of old. In later times it renewed the blessed apostles, and now it is the turn of the Gentiles. From the entire human race throughout the world this love gathers together into one body a new people, to be the bride of God’s only Son. She is the bride of whom it is asked in the Song of Songs: Who is this who comes clothed in white? White indeed are her garments, for she has been made new; and the source of her renewal is none other than this new commandment.

And so all her members make each other’s welfare their common care. When one member suffers, all the members suffer with him, and if one member is glorified all the rest rejoice. They hear and obey the Lord’s words: A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; not as men love one another for their own selfish ends, nor merely on account of their common humanity, but because they are all gods and sons of the Most High. They love one another as God loves them so that they may be brothers of his only Son. He will lead them to the goal that alone will satisfy them, where all their desires will be fulfilled. For when God is all in all, there will be nothing left to desire.

This love is the gift of the Lord who said: As I have loved you, you also must love one another. His object in loving us, then, was to enable us to love each other. By loving us himself, our mighty head has linked us all together as members of his own body, bound to one another by the tender bond of love.

RESPONSORY 1 John 4:21; Matthew 22:40

God has given us this commandment:
— whoever loves God must also love his brother, alleluia.

On these two commandments rest the whole law and the prophets,
— Whoever loves God must also love his brother, alleluia.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

O God,
who restores human nature
to yet greater dignity than at its beginnings,
look upon the amazing mystery of your loving kindness,
and in those you have chosen to make new
through the wonder of rebirth,
may you preserve the gifts of your enduring grace and blessing.
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.