Opening
Lord, open my lips. And my mouth will proclaim your praise.
Hymn
We offer You the morning, Lord, Its noise not yet begun. Receive our work, our waiting too, Before the race is run. If joy should meet us on the road, Or trial mark the hour, Still keep us near Your quiet fire, And under love’s true power.
Original, Prayer on Fire
Psalm I
Antiphon
At daybreak, kindle hope where I am weary.
Psalm 51 (50)
Catholic Public Domain Version (public domain)
Psalm
Be merciful to me, O God, according to your great mercy. And, according to the plentitude of your compassion, wipe out my iniquity. Wash me once again from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my iniquity, and my sin is ever before me. Against you only have I sinned, and I have done evil before your eyes. And so, you are justified in your words, and you will prevail when you give judgment. For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sinfulness did my mother conceive me. For behold, you have loved truth. The obscure and hidden things of your wisdom, you have manifested to me. You will sprinkle me with hyssop, and I will be cleansed. You will wash me, and I will be made whiter than snow. In my hearing, you will grant gladness and rejoicing. And the bones that have been humbled will exult. Turn your face away from my sins, and erase all my iniquities. Create a clean heart in me, O God. And renew an upright spirit within my inmost being. Do not cast me away from your face; and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and confirm me with an unsurpassed spirit. I will teach the unjust your ways, and the impious will be converted to you. Free me from blood, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue will extol your justice. O Lord, you will open my lips, and my mouth will announce your praise. For if you had desired sacrifice, I would certainly have given it, but with holocausts, you will not be delighted. A crushed spirit is a sacrifice to God. A contrite and humbled heart, O God, you will not spurn. Act kindly, Lord, in your good will toward Zion, so that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up. Then you will accept the sacrifice of justice, oblations, and holocausts. Then they will lay calves upon your altar.
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
At daybreak, kindle hope where I am weary.
Psalm II
Antiphon
New mercy for a new day — I place my plans in your hands.
Psalm 95 (94)
Catholic Public Domain Version (public domain)
Psalm
Come, let us exult in the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to God, our Savior. Let us anticipate his presence with confession, and let us sing joyfully to him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God and a great King over all gods. For in his hand are all the limits of the earth, and the heights of the mountains are his. For the sea is his, and he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us adore and fall prostrate, and let us weep before the Lord who made us. For he is the Lord our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts: as in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness, where your fathers tempted me; they tested me, though they had seen my works. For forty years, I was offended by that generation, and I said: These have always strayed in heart. And these have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath: They shall not enter into my rest.
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
New mercy for a new day — I place my plans in your hands.
Silence
Hold the psalm a little longer.
Reading
Galatians 2:16, 19–20
Catholic Public Domain Version (public domain)
And we know that man is not justified by the works of the law, but only by the faith of Jesus Christ. And so we believe in Christ Jesus, in order that we may be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. For no flesh will be justified by the works of the law. For through the law, I have become dead to the law, so that I may live for God. I have been nailed to the cross with Christ. I live; yet now, it is not I, but truly Christ, who lives in me. And though I live now in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and who delivered himself for me.
Responsory
Let the light of your face shine upon us. And we shall be saved. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Benedictus
Antiphon
Let the dawn of his mercy break upon those who sit in darkness.
Luke 1:68–79
Catholic Public Domain Version (public domain)
Canticle
“Blessed is the Lord God of Israel. For he has visited and has wrought the redemption of his people. And he has raised up a horn of salvation for us, in the house of David his servant, just as he spoke by the mouth of his holy Prophets, who are from ages past: salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all those who hate us, to accomplish mercy with our fathers, and to call to mind his holy testament, the oath, which he swore to Abraham, our father, that he would grant to us, so that, having been freed from the hand of our enemies, we may serve him without fear, in holiness and in justice before him, throughout all our days. And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High. For you will go before the face of the Lord: to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people for the remission of their sins, through the heart of the mercy of our God, by which, descending from on high, he has visited us, to illuminate those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to direct our feet in the way of peace.”
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
Let the dawn of his mercy break upon those who sit in darkness.
Intercessions
For the saints who show us an ordinary holiness.
R. Lord, have mercy.
For the Church in our town, unnoticed and true.
R. Lord, have mercy.
For missionaries and for those who keep the parish lights on.
R. Lord, have mercy.
For our bishop and for the pope.
R. Lord, have mercy.
For a day that belongs to Christ.
R. Lord, have mercy.
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
Lord Jesus, go with us toward the people we will meet. Let no one leave our presence unblessed. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.