Ribbon Placement:

Office of Readings for Tuesday of the 2nd Week of Lent

God, come to my assistance.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

HYMN

O God, our help in ages past,

Beneath the shadow of Your throne

Before the hills in order stood,

A thousand ages in your sight

Time, like an ever rolling stream,

O God, our help in ages past,

PSALMODY

Ant. 1 Surrender to God, and he will do everything for you.

Psalm 37

I

Do not fret because of the wicked;

If you trust in the Lord and do good,

Commit your life to the Lord,

Be still before the Lord and wait in patience;

Calm your anger and forget your rage;

A little longer – and the wicked shall have gone.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

Ant. Surrender to God, and he will do everything for you.

Ant. 2 Turn away from evil, learn to do God’s will; the Lord will strengthen you if you obey him.

II

The wicked man plots against the just

The sword of the wicked is drawn,

The just man’s few possessions

He protects the lives of the upright,

But the wicked shall perish

The wicked man borrows without repaying,

The Lord guides the steps of a man

I was young and now I am old,

Then turn away from evil and do good

The unjust shall be wiped out for ever

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

Ant. Turn away from evil, learn to do God’s will; the Lord will strengthen you if you obey him.

Ant. 3 Wait for the Lord to lead, then follow in his way.

III

The just man’s mouth utters wisdom

The wicked man watches for the just

Then wait for the Lord, keep to his way.

I have seen the wicked triumphant,

See the just man, mark the upright,

The salvation of the just comes from the Lord,

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

Psalm-prayer

You proclaimed the poor to be blessed, Lord Jesus, for the kingdom of heaven is given to them. Fill us generously with your gifts. Teach us to put our trust in the Father and to seek his kingdom first of all rather than imitate the powerful and envy the rich.

Ant. Wait for the Lord to lead, then follow in his way.

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.

This is the favorable time.

READINGS

First reading

Having set out from Elim, the whole Israelite community came into the desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt.

Here in the desert the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “Would that we had died at the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will now rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion; thus will I test them, to see whether they follow my instructions or not. On the sixth day, however, when they prepare what they bring in, let it be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”

So Moses and Aaron told all the Israelites, “At evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt; and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, as he heeds your grumbling against him. But what are we that you should grumble against us? When the Lord gives you flesh to eat in the evening,” continued Moses, “and in the morning your fill of bread, as he heeds the grumbling you utter against him, what then are we? Your grumbling is not against us, but against the Lord.”

Then Moses said to Aaron, “Tell the whole Israelite community: Present yourselves before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.” When Aaron announced this to the whole Israelite community, they turned toward the desert, and lo, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud!

The Lord spoke to Moses and said, “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread, so that you may know that I, the Lord, am your God.”

In the evening quail came up and covered the camp. In the morning a dew lay all about the camp, and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground. On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, “What is this?” for they did not know what it was. But Moses told them, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.

“Now, this is what the Lord has commanded. So gather it that everyone has enough to eat, an omer for each person, as many of you as there are, each man providing for those of his own tent.”

The Israelites did so. Some gathered a large and some a small amount. But when they measured it out by the omer, he who had gathered a large amount did not have too much, and he who had gathered a small amount did not have too little. They so gathered that everyone had enough to eat.

The Israelites ate this manna for forty years, until they came to settled land; they ate manna until they reached the borders of Canaan.

RESPONSORY Wisdom 16:20; John 6:32

You fed your people with the food of angels, bread from heaven, ready to hand,

It was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven. It is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

Second reading

Lord, I have cried to you, hear me. This is a prayer we can all say. This is not my prayer, but that of the whole Christ. Rather, it is said in the name of his body. When Christ was on earth he prayed in his human nature, and prayed to the Father in the name of his body, and when he prayed drops of blood flowed from his whole body. So it is written in the Gospel: Jesus prayed with earnest prayer, and sweated blood. What is this blood streaming from his whole body but the martyrdom of the whole Church?

Lord, I have cried to you, hear me; listen to the sound of my prayer, when I call upon you. Did you imagine that crying was over when you said: I have cried to you? You have cried out, but do not as yet feel free from care. If anguish is at an end, crying is at an end; but if the Church, the body of Christ, must suffer anguish until the end of time, it must not say only: I have cried to you, hear me; it must also say: Listen to the sound of my prayer, when I call upon you.

Let my prayer rise like incense in your sight; let the raising of my hands be an evening sacrifice.

This is generally understood of Christ, the head, as every Christian acknowledges. When day was fading into evening, the Lord laid down his life on the cross, to take it up again; he did not lose his life against his will. Here, too, we are symbolized. What part of him hung on the cross if not the part he had received from us? How could God the Father ever cast off and abandon his only Son, who is indeed one God with him? Yet Christ, nailing our weakness to the cross (where, as the Apostle says: Our old nature was nailed to the cross with him), cried out with the very voice of humanity: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

The evening sacrifice is then the passion of the Lord, the cross of the Lord, the oblation of the victim that brings salvation, the holocaust acceptable to God. In his resurrection he made this evening sacrifice a morning sacrifice. Prayer offered in holiness from a faithful heart rises like incense from a holy altar. Nothing is more fragrant than the fragrance of the Lord. May all who believe share in this fragrance.

Therefore, our old nature, in the words of the Apostle, was nailed to the cross with him, in order, as he says, to destroy our sinful body, so that we may be slaves to sin no longer.

RESPONSORY Galatians 2:19-20

With Christ I have been nailed to the cross,

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave up his life for me.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Guard your Church, we pray, O Lord, in your unceasing mercy,

ACCLAMATION (at least in the communal celebration)

Let us praise the Lord.