Thursday
at Lauds [1]
Psalm 97 (98)
Sing to the Lord a new song,
For He has done wondrous things.
He Himself has wrought salvation
with His right hand and His holy arm.
The Lord has made known His salvation;
in the sight of the nations
He has revealed His justice.
He has remembered His mercy
and His faithfulness to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth
have seen the salvation of our God.
Sing joyfully to God, all the earth,
break into song, rejoice and sing His praise.
Sing praise to the Lord on the harp,
on the harp and with the voice of a psalm;
with trumpets sounding in harmony with the horn.
Shout for joy before the King the Lord,
let the sea in its fullness resound;
the world and all who dwell therein.
The rivers shall clap their hands,
and with them the mountains shall exult
in the presence of the Lord
for He comes to judge the earth.
He shall judge the earth with justice,
and the people with equity.
There is no greater joy than knowing that you are loved, what more that the One who loves is God Himself; that He has had a plan for you since before you were conceived in your mother’s womb, to unite you with Himself in love and to give you the joy of everlasting life with Him.
For age after age we have turned against Him in our sin and refused to accept the call of His loving mercy spoken through prophet after prophet and promised with each new covenant. Even in our own times, this age of God’s favour and the very day of salvation, we fail more often than we succeed in acknowledging the depth of His love. As we turn towards His rising now, let us give thanks that our God is faithful in spite of our constant failings; that He continues to reach out in love when we fall, despite our pride; and that he holds us tight in communion with our brethren in Christ and His whole Body, the Church, despite our rebellious disposition.
And now, for the glory of His Name, may we outdo each other in praise of our God, encouraging one another to transcend the jubilation of the earth at the coming of His light. May we be worthy, as He desires to make us, to stand atop of His creation and lead this symphony of praise, which welcomes the first light of each new day in the hope of His return. For in that day of His coming is our triumph and our greatest jubilation.
On that day, we shall stand before Him all as equals, none to be saved except those who have hailed the glory of His universal reign and surrendered their hearts to the love of their King. On that day, all shall see that trust in God is the only measure of righteousness, for Salvation is His gift alone, the work of His strong right hand that gently bestows it upon His beloved. Those touched by His grace to live lives of faith, hope, and love shall know the perfect joy of His saving light, which shines on us now but the merest glimmer of what is to come.
Sing, then with all your heart and soul, for there His Spirit has made His dwelling; and we shall be in the presence of the Lord, the soaring notes of our song consecrating this place and the whole world to His faithful love.
at Lauds [2]
Psalm 89 (90)
Lord, You have been our refuge
from generation to generation.
Before the mountains were made,
or the earth and the word was formed;
from eternity to eternity You are God.
Turn not man away to be brought low,
for You said: “Be turned unto Me, O sons of men.”
For a thousand years in Your sight,
are but as yesterday which has passed,
or as a watch of the night;
as things that are counted as nothing,
so shall their years be.
Like grass in the morning, man shall pass:
in the morning it flourishes, then it passes away;
by the evening it grows dry, withers, and falls.
For we are cut down in Your wrath,
and in Your anger all are routed.
You have set our iniquities in Your sight:
our life in the light of Your countenance.
For all our days are spent,
and in Your wrath we wither away.
Our years, like the strands of a spider’s web.
The days of our lives, seventy years,
or fourscore for those who are strong,
and most of them are toil and sorrow;
for lenience has overtaken us,
and we shall be corrected.
Who knows the strength of Your wrath,
and for fear of You enumerate Your anger?
Make Your right hand known,
and make us learned in wisdom of heart.
How long before You turn to us again, O Lord?
And be moved over the entreaties of Your servants.
We are filled at daybreak with Your mercy;
shout for joy and gladness all our days.
We have rejoiced for the days when You humbled us;
for the years during which we have seen evils.
Look upon Your servants and Your work,
and direct their children;
and let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us,
and Your direction over work of our hands,
and all that we do.
First-light heralds the glory of Christ, renewing all of creation with a light that sanctifies and heals. But the same light sends its rays into the darkest chasms of our hearts, bringing even the darkest sins, sometimes the most inconspicuous and yet the most insidious, into the light of His countenance. Nothing is hidden from His light, and from His sight no thought, word, or deed is made in secret.
In Christ has our humanity been embraced by the divine: be converted, then, you sons of men, and turn to the Lord. Though we are heavily burdened with sin and justice cries out for our punishment, the justice of God is clothed in mercy for those who turn to Him in humble contrition, acknowledging their faults, acknowledging the fragility of their own existence before the source of life. For what should we be to God, creatures that, should He blink, entire generations would be born and reduced to dust? And yet He knows each of us with the intimacy of a mother to her only son, as a father to his firstborn, in whom he has vested all his pride. Such are we to God, precious before His sight. And so in Him is our refuge and our strength, our life beyond the span of seventy years or eighty if we are unlucky. For He has reserved for us a life without toil or pain, a life embraced by His unapproachable light, a life that endures, like Him, for all eternity.
And yet, so many times we turn from His light preferring darkness, preferring to risk His anger than to fall into His love. We look upon the desolation of the world without these walls and count our pieties as pleasing in His sight, such that they might hide a multitude of sins. But it is not the tonsure that forgives, nor the habit that ennobles us before the throne of judgment. The cowl may cover the effects of gluttony and the hood the appearance of wrath but God is no man’s fool. Count not that we might be better than another, and that God might be disposed to leniency for the sins that we hide with our holiness.
Turn now while God still hears your supplication. Beg forgiveness before His light, lest it consume you with its purging heat. Be thankful that you have failed and yet still have breath to ask for mercy. And know that with the light comes hope for all who would abandon their will to His and ask for His strength to face the tests of this and every new day.
at Lauds [3]
Psalm 35 (36)
The unjust man persuades himself to sin,
there is no fear of God before his eyes.
For he practices deceit in the sight of God,
pursuing iniquity and hatred.
The words of his mouth are iniquity and guile;
he refuses to understand how he might do good.
He devises evil upon his bed,
he sets himself in every way that is not good,
yet evil he has not hated.
O Lord, Your mercy is in heaven
and Your truth reaches even to the clouds.
Your justice is as the mountains of God,
Your judgments are like the mighty deep.
Man and beast You will preserve, O Lord,
just as You are bountiful in mercy, O God;
and the children of men shall trust
in the shelter of Your wings.
They shall be imbued with the riches of Your house,
and You will give them to drink
from the torrents of Your pleasure.
For with You is the fountain of life,
and in Your light we shall see light.
Extend your mercy to those who know you,
and your justice to the upright of heart.
Let not the foot of pride come upon me
and let not the hand of the sinner move me.
There the workers of iniquity are fallen,
they are cast out and may not stand.
Speak, if that will give you ease, that justification which led you to sin. And if it gives you vindication, then trust your own ways with no fear of God. You shall stand taller than the mountains of God in your defiance, and trust in your own right judgments when the Judge of all things descends His heavenly throne. But if there is even the slightest doubt in your conscience, and should your heart blush with guilt at the work of your hands, then repent of your wrongdoing and taste of the cup of His mercy. For there are two types of men: those who trust in themselves, and those who trust in God. And only one shall remain standing on the day of His coming.
Turn from the deceit of evil, which abandons truth and denies judgment. You are deceived that evil will not be repaid with wrath; for God is love, and love has mercy, but mercy cries out for justice, and God will judge, to the last man of His creation, them that have loved Him and those that have lived for hatred of His love. God does not demand perfection but grants His wisdom to those who would turn to Him. Wisdom that sees two paths in life’s journey: the path of self-love, which turns in upon itself and becomes a cycle of self-loathing; and the path of selfless-love that, though rugged and hard to climb, witnesses the transformation of oneself into Himself, of imperfect mortal love into the perfection of Divine love.
Along this same path of selfless love, the Word of God once walked. He took with Him the broken love of man and healed it by loving it so perfectly that He died for it. But before He gave His life in love for our love, He left upon this path a gift that would continually perfect our love as we make our wearisome journey. His gift is the full bounty of His love, the fountain of life, and the source of His abundant mercy: the Eucharist.
Would that all men come to see the light that emanates from the Body and Blood of the Saviour, and see in it the light of eternal love that is the source and summit of our own lives. Would that we daily draw, from this source of all that is good, the strength to acknowledge, and die to our sinfulness and rise with Him in the all-conquering love of the resurrection.
Let us be not proud as we walk the path to God, nor trust in ourselves to save; for we have known Your Word and Your promise, and beg to be admitted to the tent of Your mercy before Your just judgment is made known upon men. And in the gift of Your Son, may we find His strength to lift us out of our shame, the wisdom to be unmoved from this path by sin, and may we feast on the riches of Your House and know the ecstasy of the taste of pure love.
at Lauds [4]
Canticle of Jeremiah (Jer. 31:10-14)
Hear the word of the Lord, O you nations,
and proclaim it in the far off isles,
and say: “He who scattered Israel will gather them,
and He will guard them, his flock, like a shepherd.
The Lord has ransomed Jacob,
and freed him from the hand of his conqueror.
And they shall come, and give praise on mount Sion,
and they will flow towards the good things of the Lord,
more than to the corn, the wine and the oil,
and the herds of young cattle.
Their souls shall be like a watered garden,
and they shall hunger no more.
The shall the virgins rejoice together in song,
young men together with the old.
And I will turn their mourning into gladness,
and comfort them, and lift them
from their sorrows with joy.
And I will saturate the souls
of their priests with My opulence
and My people shall be filled in abundance
with My good things.
Deliver us, O Lord, as once you delivered Jacob, and Israel, your beloved, from the captivity of the Babylonians. But deliver us from ourselves, for we, ourselves, are all that stand in the way of embracing the bounty of your great goodness. Break the bonds of our imprisonment to our own desires and set us free from self -love and -will. Unburden us of these shackles that weigh us down and confine our search for happiness to the mundane. Unlock the doors of our hearts that incarcerate love within, and set free our love to return to you, its source.
For too often have we conquered our own hearts in our own name and laid claim to that which is rightly yours. How often have I chosen my will above yours and subdued the soul, which burns for you alone? Have mercy on me, God, in my misery, for I am both captor and captive; ransom me from my worst-self and lead me as the shepherd leads his docile flock.
Lead us to your rich pastures, and free us, that we may know that all joy in heaven and on earth is found in you alone; that you fulfil in overabundance every desire, not just quenching our thirst and feeding our hunger, but filling us with more than any corn, wine or oil may satisfy. And having led us to this holy place, empty us of all conceit, and pride, and self-sufficiency, and allow us the grace to feast from your table, from the source of life itself, and saturate our whole being with your love, so that we shall know that all our human yearnings are illusions, save for our desire to live and die in your love.
Then shall my soul know true joy: the joy of deliverance; for I thought I knew freedom but it was a lie. I was as the dog that chases his own tail believing he is running free through lush meadows. Now I have set my feet in the fertile fields of your abounding blessings, I am shamed by my foolishness, but you lift me from my humiliation and clothe me with your gladness. And my body, now knowing what it means to be sated by your love, cannot help but rejoice and sing of your glory to the far off isles and the ends of the earth.
at Lauds [5]
Psalm 146 (147)
Praise the Lord! For this, our song, is good:
To our God be joyful and fitting praise.
The Lord builds up Jerusalem:
He gathers together the dispersed of Israel;
He who heals the broken hearted,
who binds up all their wounds,
who numbers the multitude of stars
and calls them all by name.
Great is our Lord, and great His power,
and His wisdom is incalculable.
The Lord lifts up the lowly;
Sinners, He casts down even to the ground.
Sing before the Lord,
in acknowledgement of His greatness;
sing praise to our God with the harp:
He who covers the heavens with clouds,
and provides rain for the earth;
who makes grass grow on the mountains,
and herbs for the service of men;
who gives to the beasts their food,
and to the nestling ravens that call upon Him.
He shall not delight in the horse’s strength,
nor is he pleased with the legs of men:
the Lord delights in those who fear Him,
and in those who hope for His kindness.
O Lord, mens nostra concordet voci nostrae. Count us worthy, therefore to stand here in your presence and sing to your glory; for to that which we sing may our lives concur, so that our whole being may be fitting praise to you.
All that is good the Lord has provided from His bounty, including these words that our voices raise into His presence. Pray also that He may make good our endeavours to conform our lives to His holy will in our daily tasks, by revealing to us the great goodness of His love in the world.
May we see Him in all that He has touched with His love and never fail to appreciate His abundant blessings through which even the mundane offer to us glimpses of divine light. For the Lord takes and heals the world, and calls it to Himself, so that those who gaze upon the stars, or see the fruitfulness of the earth and the life of all His creatures see His abiding presence through the world He created. So it is that even each blade of grass is cause enough for us to recall God’s love for us, and in each person His desire that His love be shared.
Lord, reveal yourself a Father to us, through your Son who died for our sins and rose to make us sons of God. See our weaknesses and our hurts and bring healing to them and the brokenness of our sinful hearts. Form us with your word and grant us wisdom to see your will in the choices placed before us. Continue to sustain us in all our necessities, you who have brought us to the joy of a new day, so that as your light shines, it may ignite in us a fervour for your service and enable us to be your gift of light to the world. Ennoble our lowliness for your work insomuch as we desire that people see you in our labours and meet you in our words and deeds.
So may our lives extend this hour of prayer until our minds and bodies work in unison with the voice of our souls, which now sing praise to God. In this way may we be made worthy, as the words of our Psalm render worthy praise, to be not cast down by our sins as we deserve, but to be recipients of His grace and kindness for the greater glory of His Name.