Universalis: Office of Readings (2024)

If this is the first Hour that you are reciting today, you should precede it with the Invitatory Psalm.

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.

Eternal Father, through your Word

You gave new life to Adam’s race,

And call us now to live in light,

New creatures by your saving grace.

To you who stooped to all who sin

We render homage and give praise:

To Father, Son and Spirit blest

Whose loving gift is endless days.

Stanbrook Abbey Hymnal

Psalm 17 (18)
Thanksgiving

The word of the Lord is a shield for all who make him their refuge.

The Lord’s ways are pure;

the words of the Lord are refined in the furnace;

the Lord protects all who hope in him.

For what God is there, but our Lord?

What help, but in the Lord our God?

God, who has wrapped me in his strength

and set me on the perfect path,

who has made my feet like those of the deer,

who has set me firm upon the heights,

who trains my hands for battle,

teaches my arms to bend a bow of bronze.

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 word of the Lord is a shield for all who make him their refuge.

Psalm 17 (18)

Lord, your right hand upheld me.

You have given me the shield of your salvation;

your right hand holds me up;

by answering me, you give me greatness.

You have stretched the length of my stride,

my feet do not weaken.

I pursue my enemies and surround them;

I do not turn back until they are no more.

I smash them to pieces, they cannot stand,

they fall beneath my feet.

You have wrapped me round with strength for war,

and made my attackers fall under me.

You turned my enemies’ backs on me,

you destroyed those who hated me.

They cried out, but there was no-one to save them;

they cried to the Lord, but he did not hear.

I have ground them up until they are dust in the wind,

trodden them down like the mud of the street.

You have delivered me from the murmurings of the people

and placed me at the head of the nations.

A people I do not even know serves me–

at a mere rumour of my orders, they obey.

The children of strangers beg for my favour;

they hide away and tremble where they hide.

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.

Lord, your right hand upheld me.

Psalm 17 (18)

Long life to the Lord! Praised be the God who saves me.

The Lord lives, my blessed Helper.

Let the God of my salvation be exalted.

God, you give me my revenge,

you subject peoples to my rule,

you free me from my enraged enemies.

You raise me up from those who attack me,

you snatch me from the grasp of the violent.

And so I will proclaim you among the nations, Lord,

and sing to your name.

Time and again you save your king,

you show your loving kindness to your anointed,

to David and his descendants 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.

Long life to the Lord! Praised be the God who saves me.

℣. Lord, open my eyes.

℟. Let me consider the wonders of your law.

God's reply to Job

Then from the heart of the tempest the Lord gave Job his answer. He said:

Who is this obscuring my designs

with his empty-headed words?

Brace yourself like a fighter;

now it is my turn to ask questions and yours to inform me.

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?

Tell me, since you are so well-informed!

Who decided the dimensions of it, do you know?

Or who stretched the measuring line across it?

What supports its pillars at their bases?

Who laid its cornerstone

when all the stars of the morning were singing with joy,

and the Sons of God in chorus were chanting praise?

Who pent up the sea behind closed doors

when it leapt tumultuous out of the womb,

when I wrapped it in a robe of mist

and made black clouds its swaddling bands;

when I marked the bounds it was not to cross

and made it fast with a bolted gate?

Come thus far, I said, and no farther:

here your proud waves shall break.

Have you ever in your life given orders to the morning

or sent the dawn to its post,

telling it to grasp the earth by its edges

and shake the wicked out of it,

when it changes the earth to sealing clay

and dyes it as a man dyes clothes;

stealing the light from wicked men

and breaking the arm raised to strike?

Have you journeyed all the way to the sources of the sea,

or walked where the Abyss is deepest?

Have you been shown the gates of Death

or met the janitors of Shadowland?

Have you an inkling of the extent of the earth?

Tell me all about it if you have!

Which is the way to the home of the light,

and where does darkness live?

You could then show them the way to their proper places,

or put them on the path to where they live!

If you know all this, you must have been born with them,

you must be very old by now!

Have you ever visited the place where the snow is kept,

or seen where the hail is stored up,

which I keep for times of stress,

for days of battle and war?

From which direction does the lightning fork

when it scatters sparks over the earth?

Who carves a channel for the downpour,

and hacks a way for the rolling thunder,

so that rain may fall on lands where no one lives,

and the deserts void of human dwelling,

giving drink to the lonely wastes

and making grass spring where everything was dry?

Has the rain a father?

Who begets the dewdrops?

What womb brings forth the ice,

and gives birth to the frost of heaven,

when the waters grow hard as stone

and the surface of the deep congeals?

℟. What right have you, a human being, to cross-examine God?* Has the pot any right to say to the potter, Why did you make me this shape?

℣. Gird up your loins now, like a man. I will question you, and you tell me the answers:* Has the pot any right to say to the potter, Why did you make me this shape?

The Church rises like the dawn

Since the dawn goes from darkness into light, it is right that the Church of the elect should be called “dawn” or “first light.” As it is led from the night of disbelief into the light of faith, it is opened up to the splendour of heavenly brightness just as the dawn bursts into day after darkness. How right are the words of the Song of Songs: Who is she who is coming up like the dawn? The holy Church seeks the rewards of heavenly life and is rightly called the dawn because it deserts the shadows of sin and sparkles in the light of righteousness.

There is something subtler to learn from this, on considering the nature of the dawn. Dawn, or first light, proclaims that the night is over but does not yet manifest the full brightness of the day. It dispels night, it gives a beginning to the day, but still it is a mixture of light and darkness. All of us who follow the truth in this life, are we not exactly like the dawn? Some of the things we do are truly works of the light, but others are not entirely free of the remnants of darkness. No man is virtuous before you, says the psalmist, and again Scripture says we have all done wrong in many ways.

This is why Paul does not say “the night has passed and day has come,” but night has passed and day is approaching, showing beyond doubt that he is still in the dawn, after the end of darkness but still before rising of the sun.

The Church of the elect will be fully day only when the darkness of sin is no longer mixed in with it. It will be fully day only when it shines with the perfect warmth of a light that comes from within. God shows that we are still going through this dawn when he says to Job, Have you ever sent the dawn to its post? Something that is being sent somewhere is being sent from one place or state to another. What is the destined place of the dawn if not the perfect brightness of the eternal vision? And when it has reached its place, will it still have any of the darkness of the night that has passed? The dawn was intent on reaching its destined place when the psalmist said My soul thirsts for the living God; when shall I appear before the face of God? The dawn was hurrying to the place it knew to be its destiny when Paul said that he wanted to die and to be with Christ, and when he said For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

℟. I thank my God whenever I think of you.* I am quite certain that the One who began this good work in you will see that it is finished when the Day of Christ Jesus comes.

℣. This is my prayer, that your love may grow ever richer and richer in knowledge and insight of every kind.* I am quite certain that the One who began this good work in you will see that it is finished when the Day of Christ Jesus comes.

Let us pray.

Lord God,

by whom our lives are governed with unfailing wisdom and love,

take away from us all that is harmful

and give us all that will be for our good.

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.

The psalms and canticles here are our own translation from the Latin. The Grail translation of the psalms, which is used liturgically in most of the English-speaking world, cannot be displayed on the Web for copyright reasons. The Universalis apps and programs do contain the Grail translation of the psalms.

You can also view this page in Latin and English.