Liturgy of the Hours Vol. II:
Ordinary: 1045
Psalter: Saturday, Week IV, 1606
Proper of Seasons: 803 (first reading)
Proper of Saints: 1808 (second reading, concluding prayer)
Office of Readings for Saturday in Easter, the Memorial of Saint Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor
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
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
Beneath the shadow of Your throne
Your saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is your arm alone,
Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting you are God,
To endless years the same.
A thousand ages in your sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Time, like an ever rolling stream,
Bears all our lives away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be now our guard while troubles last,
𝄞"O God, Our Help in Ages Past" by Melinda Kirigin-Voss, Vince Clark • Musical Score • Title: O God, Our Help in Ages Past; Text: Based on Psalm 90; Isaac Watts, 1674-1748, Psalms of David..., 1719, alt.; Tune: ST. ANNE, CM; later form of melody (rhythm adapted), attr. to William Croft, 1678-1727, A Supplement to the New Version of Psalms, 1708; Artist: Melinda Kirigin-Voss, Vince Clark; Copyright 2016 Surgeworks Inc. • Albums that contain this Hymn: Divine Office
Ant. 1 The Lord delivered his people from the oppressor, alleluia.
Salvation history reveals the goodness of God and the faithlessness of his people
These events are recalled as a warning to us (1 Corinthians 10:6).
How often they defied him in the wilderness
and caused him pain in the desert!
Yet again they put God to the test
and grieved the Holy One of Israel.
They did not remember his deeds
nor the day he saved them from the foe;
when he worked his miracles in Egypt,
his wonders in the plains of Zoan;
when he turned their rivers into blood,
made their streams impossible to drink.
He sent dog-flies against them to devour them
and swarms of frogs to molest them.
He gave their crops to the grub,
the fruit of their labor to the locust.
He destroyed their vines with hail,
their sycamore trees with frost.
He gave up their cattle to plague,
their flocks and herds to pestilence.
He turned on them the heat of his anger,
fury, rage and havoc,
a troop of destroying angels.
He gave free course to his anger.
He did not spare them from death
but gave their lives to the plague.
He struck all the first-born in Egypt,
the finest flower in the dwellings of Ham.
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 delivered his people from the oppressor, alleluia.
Ant. 2 The Lord led his people to his holy mountain, alleluia.
Then he brought forth his people like sheep;
he guided his flock in the desert.
He led them safely with nothing to fear,
while the sea engulfed their foes.
So he brought them to his holy land,
to the mountain which his right hand had won.
He drove out the nations before them,
and divided the land for their heritage.
Their tents he gave as a dwelling
to each one of Israel’s tribes.
Still they put God to the proof and defied him;
they refused to obey the Most High.
They strayed, as faithless as their fathers,
like a bow on which the archer cannot count.
With their mountain shrines they angered him;
made him jealous with the idols they served.
God saw and was filled with fury:
he utterly rejected Israel.
He forsook his dwelling place in Shiloh,
the tent where he lived among men.
He gave his ark into captivity,
his glorious ark into the hands of the foe.
He gave up his people to the sword,
in his anger against his chosen ones.
So war devoured their young men,
their maidens had no wedding songs;
their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows made no lament.
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 led his people to his holy mountain, alleluia.
Ant. 3 The Lord chose the tribe of Judah, and David, his servant, to shepherd Israel, his chosen people, alleluia.
Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep,
like a warrior overcome with wine.
He struck his foes from behind
and put them to everlasting shame.
He rejected the tent of Joseph;
He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim
but he chose the tribe of Judah,
the hill of Zion which he loves.
He built his shrine like the heavens,
or like the earth which he made firm for ever.
And he chose David his servant
and took him away from the sheepfolds.
From the care of the ewes he called him
to be shepherd of Jacob his people,
Of Israel his own possession.
He tended them with blameless heart,
with discerning mind he led them.
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.
For your people, Lord Jesus, you bring water from the rock and rain bread from heaven; you forgive sins with limitless generosity. Do not let us be marked by unfaithfulness, as in days of old, but grant that the covenant you sealed with your blood may merit us a place with you in your kingdom.
Ant. The Lord chose the tribe of Judah, and David, his servant, to shepherd Israel, his chosen people, 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.
You will hear the word from my mouth.
— You will tell others what I have said.
From the book of Revelation
18:1-20
The destruction of Babylon
I, John, saw another angel coming down from heaven. His authority was so great that all the earth was lighted up by his glory. He cried out in a strong voice:
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!
She has become a dwelling place for demons.
She is a cage for every unclean spirit,
a cage for every filthy and disgusting bird;
For she has made all the nations drink
the poisoned wine of her lewdness.
The kings of the earth committed fornication with her,
and the world’s merchants grew rich from her wealth
Then I heard another voice from heaven say:
“Depart from her, my people,
for fear of sinning with her
and sharing the plagues inflicted on her!
For her sins have piled up as high as heaven,
and God keeps count of her crimes.
Pay her back as she has paid others;
pay her double for her deeds!
Pour into her cup twice the amount she concocted!
In proportion to her boasting and sensuality,
repay her in torment and grief!
For she said to herself,
‘I sit enthroned as a queen.
No widow am I,
and never will I go into mourning!’
Therefore her plagues will come all at once,
death and mourning and famine.
She shall be consumed by fire,
for mighty is the Lord God who condemns her.”
The kings of the earth who committed fornication with her and wallowed in her sensuality will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke arise as she burns. They will keep their distance for fear of the punishment inflicted on her, and will say:
“Alas, alas, great city that you are,
Babylon the mighty!
In a single hour your doom has come!”
The merchants of the world will weep and mourn over her too, for there will be no more market for their imports—their cargoes of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen and purple garments, silk and scarlet cloth; fragrant wood of every kind, all sorts of ivory pieces and expensive wooden furniture; bronze, iron and marble; cinnamon and amomum, perfumes, myrrh and frankincense; wine and olive oil, fine flour and grain; cattle and sheep, horses and carriages; slaves and human lives.
“The fruit your appetite craved
has deserted you.
All your luxury and splendor are gone;
you shall never find them again!”
The merchants who deal in these goods, who grew rich from business with the city, will keep their distance for fear of the punishment inflicted on her. Weeping and mourning, they cry out:
“Alas, alas, the great city,
dressed in fine linen
and purple and scarlet,
Adorned all in gold
and jewels and pearls!
In a single hour
this great wealth has been destroyed!”
Every captain and navigator, all sailors and seafaring men, then stood at a distance and cried out when they saw the smoke go up as the city burned to the ground: “What city could have compared with this great one!” They poured dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and mourning:
“Alas, alas, the great city,
in which all shipowners grew rich
from their profitable trade with her!
In a single hour
her destruction has come about!”
Rejoice over her, you heavens, you saints, apostles and prophets! For God has exacted punishment from her on your account.
RESPONSORY Isaiah 52:11, 12; Revelation 18:4; Jeremiah 51:45
Depart from Babylon, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord,
— for the Lord shall lead you forth, and the God of Israel shall be your rear guard, alleluia.
Depart from Babylon, my people; let each one save himself from the anger of the Lord.
— For the Lord shall lead you forth, and the God of Israel shall be your rear guard, alleluia.
From a discourse by Saint Athanasius, bishop
On the incarnation of the Word The Word of God, incorporeal, incorruptible and immaterial, entered our world. Yet it was not as if he had been remote from it up to that time. For there is no part of the world that was ever without his presence; together with his Father, he continually filled all things and places.
Out of his loving-kindness for us he came to us, and we see this in the way he revealed himself openly to us. Taking pity on mankind’s weakness, and moved by our corruption, he could not stand aside and see death have the mastery over us; he did not want creation to perish and his Father’s work in fashioning man to be in vain. He therefore took to himself a body, no different from our own, for he did not wish simply to be in a body or only to be seen.
If he had wanted simply to be seen, he could indeed have taken another, and nobler, body. Instead, he took our body in its reality.
Within the Virgin he built himself a temple, that is, a body; he made it his own instrument in which to dwell and to reveal himself. In this way he received from mankind a body like our own, and, since all were subject to the corruption of death, he delivered this body over to death for all, and with supreme love offered it to the Father. He did so to destroy the law of corruption passed against all men, since all died in him. The law, which had spent its force on the body of the Lord, could no longer have any power over his fellowmen. Moreover, this was the way in which the Word was to restore mankind to immortality, after it had fallen into corruption, and summon it back from death to life. He utterly destroyed the power death had against mankind—as fire consumes chaff—by means of the body he had taken and the grace of the resurrection.
This is the reason why the Word assumed a body that could die, so that this body, sharing in the Word who is above all, might satisfy death’s requirement in place of all. Because of the Word dwelling in that body, it would remain incorruptible, and all would be freed for ever from corruption by the grace of the resurrection.
In death the Word made a spotless sacrifice and oblation of the body he had taken. By dying for others, he immediately banished death for all mankind.
In this way the Word of God, who is above all, dedicated and offered his temple, the instrument that was his body, for us all, as he said, and so paid by his own death the debt that was owed. The immortal Son of God, united with all men by likeness of nature, thus fulfilled all justice in restoring mankind to immortality by the promise of the resurrection.
The corruption of death no longer holds any power over mankind, thanks to the Word, who has come to dwell among them through his one body.
RESPONSORY Jeremiah 15:19, 20; 2 Peter 2:1
You will be my spokesman. I will make you a solid wall of brass to these people.
— They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail, for I am with you, alleluia.
False teachers will arise. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies and deny the Master who saved them.
— They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail, for I am with you, alleluia.
Almighty ever-living God,
who raised up the Bishop Saint Athanasius
as an outstanding champion of your Son’s divinity,
mercifully grant, that, rejoicing in his teaching
and his protection, we may never cease
to grow in knowledge and love of you.
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.
ACCLAMATION (at least in the communal celebration)
