Opening
God, come to my assistance. Lord, make haste to help me.
Hymn
Unless you build the house, O Lord, My labor is an empty name. Stay with the work my hands have started; Keep it honest, keep it tame. When success would make me careless, Give a humble mind again. When I fail, restore my courage. Christ, be still my yes. Amen.
Original – Prayer on Fire
Psalm I
Antiphon
Hold my attention, Lord, when the day pulls me thin.
Psalm 72 (71):1–2, 12–13
Catholic Public Domain Version (public domain)
Psalm
Give your judgment, O God, to the king, and your justice to the king’s son, to judge your people with justice and your poor with judgment. For he will free the poor from the powerful, and the poor one who has no helper. He will spare the poor and the indigent, and he will bring salvation to the souls of the poor.
Glory Be
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.
Antiphon
Hold my attention, Lord, when the day pulls me thin.
Psalm II
Antiphon
Unless you build the house, my labor is empty — stay with me.
Psalm 98 (97):1–3
Catholic Public Domain Version (public domain)
Psalm
Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has performed wonders. His right hand and his holy arm have accomplished salvation. The Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his justice in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Glory Be
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.
Antiphon
Unless you build the house, my labor is empty — stay with me.
Silence
Let the last verse rest in you.
Reading
Micah 6:8
Catholic Public Domain Version (public domain)
I will reveal to you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires from you, and how to act with judgment, and to love mercy, and to walk carefully with your God.
Responsory
Return to me with your whole heart. For I am gracious and merciful. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Intercessions
Bless the hidden work of this noon — unpaid, unnoticed, still offered — and let it be enough.
R. Lord, hear our prayer.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Closing prayer
Father, in the middle of the day we return to you. Do not let us hurry past love. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.