Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. III:
Ordinary: 651
Psalter: Thursday, Week III, 1061
Proper of Seasons: 499
Proper of Saints: 1538
Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary: 1618

Office of Readings for Thursday in Ordinary Time, the Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

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 Look on us, Lord, and see how we are despised.

Psalm 89:39-53
Lament for the fall of David’s dynasty
He has raised up for us a mighty Savior born of the house of David his servant (Luke 1:69).

IV

And yet you have rejected and spurned
and are angry with the one you have anointed.
You have broken your covenant with your servant
and dishonored his crown in the dust.

You have broken down all his walls
and reduced his fortresses to ruins.
He is despoiled by all who pass by:
he has become the taunt of his neighbors.

You have exalted the right hand of his foes;
you have made all his enemies rejoice.
You have made his sword give way,
you have not upheld him in battle.

You have brought his glory to an end;
you have hurled his throne to the ground.
You have cut short the years of his youth;
you have heaped disgrace upon him.

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. Look on us, Lord, and see how we are despised.

Ant. 2 I am the root and stock of David; I am the morning star.

V

How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself for ever?
How long will your anger burn like a fire?
Remember, Lord, the shortness of my life
and how frail you have made the sons of men.
What man can live and never see death?
Who can save himself from the grasp of the grave?

Where are your mercies of the past, O Lord,
which you have sworn in your faithfulness to David?
Remember, Lord, how your servant is taunted,
how I have to bear all the insults of the peoples.
Thus your enemies taunt me, O Lord,
mocking your anointed at every step.

Blessed be the Lord for ever. Amen, amen!

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, God of mercy and fidelity, you made a new and lasting pact with men and sealed it in the blood of your Son. Forgive the folly of our disloyalty and make us keep your commandments, so that in your new covenant we may be witnesses and heralds of your faithfulness and love on earth, and sharers of your glory in heaven.

Ant. I am the root and stock of David; I am the morning star.

Ant. 3 Our years wither away like grass, but you, Lord God, are eternal.

Psalm 90
May we live in the radiance of God
There is no time with God: a thousand years, a single day: it is all one (2 Peter 3:8).

O Lord, you have been our refuge
from one generation to the next.
Before the mountains were born
or the earth or the world brought forth,
you are God, without beginning or end.

You turn men back into dust
and say: “Go back, sons of men.”
To your eyes a thousand years
are like yesterday, come and gone,
no more than a watch in the night.

You sweep men away like a dream,
like grass which springs up in the morning.
In the morning it springs up and flowers:
by evening it withers and fades.

So we are destroyed in your anger,
struck with terror in your fury.
Our guilt lies open before you;
our secrets in the light of your face.

All our days pass away in your anger.
Our life is over like a sigh.
Our span is seventy years
or eighty for those who are strong.

And most of these are emptiness and pain.
They pass swiftly and we are gone.
Who understands the power of your anger
and fears the strength of your fury?

Make us know the shortness of our life
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Lord, relent! Is your anger for ever?
Show pity to your servants.

In the morning, fill us with your love;
we shall exult and rejoice all our days.
Give us joy to balance our affliction
for the years when we knew misfortune.

Show forth your work to your servants;
let your glory shine on their children.
Let the favor of the Lord be upon us:
give success to the work of our hands,
give success to the work of our hands.

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

Eternal Father, you give us life despite our guilt and even add days and years to our lives in order to bring us wisdom. Make us love and obey you, so that the works of our hands may always display what your hands have done, until the day we gaze upon the beauty of your face.

Ant. Our years wither away like grass, but you, Lord God, are eternal.

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.

Blessed are those who hear the word of God.
— And cherish it in their hearts.

READINGS

First reading
From the first book of Kings
22:1-9, 15-23, 29, 34-38
God’s plan for the evil king Ahab is revealed

Three years passed without war between Aram and Israel. In the third year, however, King Jehoshaphat of Judah came down to the king of Israel, who said to his servants, “Do you not know that Ramoth-gilead is ours and we are doing nothing to take it from the king of Aram?” He asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you come with me to fight against Ramoth-gilead?” Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, “You and I are as one, and your people and my people, your horses and my horses as well.” Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “Seek the word of the Lord at once.”

The king of Israel gathered together the prophets, about four hundred of them, and asked, “Shall I go to attack Ramoth-gilead or shall I refrain?” “Go up,” they answered. “The Lord will deliver it over to the king.” But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no other prophet of the Lord here whom we may consult?” The king of Israel answered, “There is one other through whom we might consult the Lord, Micaiah, son of Imlah; but I hate him because he prophesies not good but evil about me.” Jehoshaphat said, “Let not your majesty speak of evil against you.” So the king of Israel called an official and said to him, “Get Micaiah, son of Imlah, at once.”

When he came to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to fight against Ramoth-gilead, or shall we refrain?” “Go up,” he answered, “you shall succeed! The Lord will deliver it over to the king.” But the king answered him, “How many times must I adjure you to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” So Micaiah said:

“I see all Israel scattered on the mountains,
like sheep without a shepherd,
and the Lord saying, ‘These have no master!
Let each of them go back home in peace.'”

The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you he prophesies not good but evil about me?” Micaiah continued: “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord seated on his throne, with the whole host of heaven standing by to his right and to his left. The Lord asked, ‘Who will deceive Ahab, so that he will go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said this, another that, until one of the spirits came forth and presented himself to the Lord, saying, ‘I will deceive him.’ The Lord asked, ‘How?’ He answered, ‘I will go forth and become a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ The Lord replied, ‘You shall succeed in deceiving him. Go forth and do this.’ So now, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours, but the Lord himself has decreed evil against you.”

The king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead. Someone, however, drew his bow at random, and hit the king of Israel between the joints of his breastplate. He ordered his charioteer, “Rein about and take me out of the ranks, for I am disabled.” The battle grew fierce during the day, and the king, who was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans, died in the evening. The blood from his wound flowed to the bottom of the chariot. At sunset a cry went through the army, “Every man to his city, every man to his land, for the king is dead!”

So they went to Samaria, where they buried the king. When the chariot was washed at the pool of Samaria, the dogs licked up his blood and harlots bathed there, as the Lord had prophesied.

RESPONSORY Jeremiah 29:8-9,11; Deuteronomy 18:18

Do not be deceived by the prophets among you; they prophesy falsely to you in my name.
— I alone know the purpose I have for you.

I will raise up for them a prophet, and I will place my words into his mouth.
— I alone know the purpose I have for you.

Second reading
From a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, pope
Mary conceived in her soul before she conceived in her body

A royal virgin of the house of David is chosen. She is to bear a holy child, one who is both God and man. She is to conceive him in her soul before she conceives him in her body. In the face of so unheard of an event she is to know no fear through ignorance of the divine plan; the angel tells her what is to be accomplished in her by the Holy Spirit. She believes that there will be no loss of virginity, she who is soon to be the mother of God. Why should she lose heart at this new form of conceiving when she has been promised that it will be effected through the power of the Most High? She believes, and her faith is confirmed by the witness of a previous wonder: against all expectation Elizabeth is made fruitful. God has enabled a barren woman to be with child; he must be believed when he makes the same promise to a virgin.

The son of God who was in the beginning with God, through whom all things were made, without whom nothing was made, became man to free him from eternal death. He stooped down to take up our lowliness without loss to his own glory. He remained what he was; he took up what he was not. He wanted to join the very nature of a servant to that nature in which he is equal to God the Father. He wanted to unite both natures in an alliance so wonderful that the glory of the greater would not annihilate the lesser, nor the taking up of the lower diminish the greatness of the higher.

What belongs to each nature is preserved intact and meets the other in one person: lowliness is taken up by greatness, weakness by power, mortality by eternity. To pay the debt of our human condition, a nature incapable of suffering is united to a nature capable of suffering, and true God and true man are forged into the unity that is the Lord. This was done to make possible the kind of remedy that fitted our human need: one and the same mediator between God and men able to die because of one nature, able to rise again because of the other. It was fitting, therefore, that the birth which brings salvation brought no corruption to virginal integrity; the bringing forth of Truth was at the same time the safeguarding of virginity.

Dearly beloved, this kind of birth was fitting for Christ, the power and the wisdom of God: a birth in which he was one with us in our human nature but far above us in his divinity. If he were not true God, he would not be able to bring us healing; if he were not true man, he would not be able to give us an example.

And so at the birth of our Lord, the angels sing in joy: Glory to God in the highest, and they proclaim peace to his people on earth as they see the heavenly Jerusalem being built from all the nations of the world. If the angels on high are so exultant at this marvelous work of God’s goodness, what joy should it not bring to the lowly hearts of men?

RESPONSORY

Let us recall the memory of the glorious Virgin Mary,
whose humility God favored.
— Having received the angel’s message,
she conceived the Savior of the world.

Let us praise Christ,
as we celebrate the feast of the admirable Mother of God.
— Having received the angel’s message,
she conceived the Savior of the world.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

May the venerable intercession
of the glorious Virgin Mary
come to our aid, we pray, O Lord,
so that, fortified by her protection,
we may reach the mountain which is Christ.
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.

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