Matins

Triduum (Holy Thursday, Matins—Holy Saturday, None)

Introduction

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.

Hail Mary, full of grace; The Lord is with thee; Blessed art thou amongst women, And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried: he descended into hell; the third day he arose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven; sitteth at the right hand of God the Father almighty: from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins. The resurrection of the body. And life everlasting. Amen.

Psalmody

Psalm 1

• Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, * nor sat in the chair of pestilence.
• But his will is in the law of the Lord, * and on his law he shall meditate day and night.
• And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, * which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season.
• And his leaf shall not fall off: * and all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper.
• Not so the wicked, not so: * but like the dust, which the wind driveth from the face of the earth.
• Therefore the wicked shall not rise again in judgment: * nor sinners in the council of the just.
• For the Lord knoweth the way of the just: * and the way of the wicked shall perish.

Psalm 2

• Why have the Gentiles raged, * and the people devised vain things?
• The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes met together, * against the Lord and against his Christ.
• Let us break their bonds asunder: * and let us cast away their yoke from us.
• He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them: * and the Lord shall deride them.
• Then shall he speak to them in his anger, * and trouble them in his rage.
• But I am appointed king by him over Sion his holy mountain, * preaching his commandment.
• The Lord hath said to me: * Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.
• Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, * and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession.
• Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, * and shalt break them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
• And now, O ye kings, understand: * receive instruction, you that judge the earth.
• Serve ye the Lord with fear: * and rejoice unto him with trembling.
• Embrace discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry, * and you perish from the just way.
• When his wrath shall be kindled in a short time, * blessed are all they that trust in him.

Psalm 3

• Why, O Lord, are they multiplied that afflict me? * many are they who rise up against me.
• Many say to my soul: * There is no salvation for him in his God.
• But thou, O Lord art my protector, * my glory, and the lifter up of my head.
• I have cried to the Lord with my voice: * and he hath heard me from his holy hill.
• I have slept and taken my rest: * and I have risen up, because the Lord hath protected me.
• I will not fear thousands of the people, surrounding me: * arise, O Lord; save me, O my God.
• For thou hast struck all them who are my adversaries without cause: * thou hast broken the teeth of sinners.
• Salvation is of the Lord: * and thy blessing is upon thy people.

Psalm 7

• O Lord my God, in thee have I put my trust: * save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me.
• Lest at any time he seize upon my soul like a lion, * while there is no one to redeem me, nor to save.
• O Lord my God, if I have done this thing, * if there be iniquity in my hands:
• If I have rendered to them that repaid me evils, * let me deservedly fall empty before my enemies.
• Let the enemy pursue my soul, and take it, and tread down my life on the earth, * and bring down my glory to the dust.
• Rise up, O Lord, in thy anger: * and be thou exalted in the borders of my enemies.
• And arise, O Lord my God, in the precept which thou hast commanded: * and a congregation of people shall surround thee.
• And for their sakes return thou on high. * The Lord judgeth the people.
• Judge me, O Lord, according to my justice, * and according to my innocence in me.
• The wickedness of sinners shall be brought to nought: and thou shalt direct the just: * the searcher of hearts and reins is God.
• Just is my help from the Lord: * who saveth the upright of heart.
• God is a just judge, strong and patient: * is he angry every day?
• Except you will be converted, he will brandish his sword: * he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.
• And in it he hath prepared the instruments of death, * he hath made ready his arrows for them that burn.
• Behold he hath been in labour with injustice; * he hath conceived sorrow, and brought forth iniquity.
• He hath opened a pit and dug it: * and he is fallen into the hole he made.
• His sorrow shall be turned on his own head: * and his iniquity shall come down upon his crown.
• I will give glory to the Lord according to his justice: * and will sing to the name of the Lord the most High.

Psalm 20

• The king rejoices in thy strength, O Lord; * ‡ and in thy salvation he shall rejoice exceedingly.
• Thou hast given him his heart’s desire: * and hast not withholden from him the will of his lips.
• For thou hast prevented him with blessings of sweetness: * thou hast set on his head a crown of precious stones.
• He asked life of thee: * and thou hast given him length of days for ever and ever.
• His glory is great in thy salvation: * glory and great beauty shalt thou lay upon him.
• For thou shalt give him to be a blessing for ever and ever: * thou shalt make him joyful in gladness with thy countenance.
• For the king hopeth in the Lord: * and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved.
• Let thy hand be found by all thy enemies: * let thy right hand find out all them that hate thee.
• Thou shalt make them as an oven of fire, * in the time of thy anger: the Lord shall trouble them in his wrath, and fire shall devour them.
• Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth: * and their seed from among the children of men.
• For they have intended evils against thee: * they have devised counsels which they have not been able to establish.
• For thou shalt make them turn their back: * in thy remnants thou shalt prepare their face.
• Be thou exalted, O Lord, in thy own strength: * we will sing and praise thy power.

Psalm 34

• Judge thou, O Lord, them that wrong me: * overthrow them that fight against me.
• Take hold of arms and shield: * and rise up to help me.
• Bring out the sword, and shut up the way against them that persecute me: * say to my soul: I am thy salvation.
• Let them be confounded and ashamed * that seek after my soul.
• Let them be turned back and be confounded * that devise against me.
• Let them become as dust before the wind: * and let the Angel of the Lord straiten them.
• Let their way become dark and slippery; * and let the Angel of the Lord pursue them.
• For without cause they have hidden their net for me unto destruction: * without cause they have upbraided my soul.
• Let the snare which he knoweth not come upon him: and let the net which he hath hidden catch him: * and into that very snare let them fall.
• But my soul shall rejoice in the Lord; * and shall be delighted in his salvation.
• All my bones shall say: * Lord, who is like to thee?
• Who deliverest the poor from the hand of them that are stronger than he; * the needy and the poor from them that strip him.
• Unjust witnesses rising up * have asked me things I knew not.
• They repaid me evil for good: * to the depriving me of my soul.
• But as for me, when they were troublesome to me, * I was clothed with haircloth.
• I humbled my soul with fasting; * and my prayer shall be turned into my bosom.
• As a neighbour and as an own brother, so did I please: * as one mourning and sorrowful so was I humbled.
• But they rejoiced against me, and came together: * scourges were gathered together upon me, and I knew not.
• They were separated, and repented not: they tempted me, they scoffed at me with scorn: * they gnashed upon me with their teeth.
• Lord, when wilt thou look upon me? * rescue thou my soul from their malice: my only one from the lions.
• I will give thanks to thee in a great church; * I will praise thee in a strong people.
• Let not them that are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: * who have hated me without cause, and wink with the eyes.
• For they spoke indeed peaceably to me; * and speaking in the anger of the earth they devised guile.
• And they opened their mouth wide against me; * they said: Well done, well done, our eyes have seen it.
• Thou hast seen, O Lord, be not thou silent: * O Lord, depart not from me.
• Arise, and be attentive to my judgment: * to my cause, my God, and my Lord.
• Judge me, O Lord my God according to thy justice, * and let them not rejoice over me.
• Let them not say in their hearts: It is well, it is well, to our mind: * neither let them say: We have swallowed him up.
• Let them blush: and be ashamed together, * who rejoice at my evils.
• Let them be clothed with confusion and shame, * who speak great things against me.
• Let them rejoice and be glad, who are well pleased with my justice, * and let them say always: The Lord be magnified, who delights in the peace of his servant.
• And my tongue shall meditate thy justice, * thy praise all the day long.

Psalm 68

• Save me, O God: for the waters are come in even unto my soul.
• ‡ I stick fast in the mire of the deep: * and there is no sure standing.
• I am come into the depth of the sea: * and a tempest hath overwhelmed me.
• I have laboured with crying; my jaws are become hoarse: * my eyes have failed, whilst I hope in my God.
• They are multiplied above the hairs of my head, * who hate me without cause.
• My enemies are grown strong who have wrongfully persecuted me: * then did I pay that which I took not away.
• O God, thou knowest my foolishness; * and my offences are not hidden from thee.
• Let not them be ashamed for me, who look for thee, O Lord, * the Lord of hosts.
• Let them not be confounded on my account, * who seek thee, O God of Israel.
• Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; * shame hath covered my face.
• I am become a stranger to my brethren, * and an alien to the sons of my mother.
• For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up: * and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.
• And I covered my soul in fasting: * and it was made a reproach to me.
• And I made haircloth my garment: * and I became a byword to them.
• They that sat in the gate spoke against me: * and they that drank wine made me their song.
• But as for me, my prayer is to thee, O Lord; * for the time of thy good pleasure, O God.
• In the multitude of thy mercy hear me, * in the truth of thy salvation.
• Draw me out of the mire, that I may not stick fast: * deliver me from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
• Let not the tempest of water drown me, nor the deep swallow me up: * and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
• Hear me, O Lord, for thy mercy is kind; * look upon me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.
• And turn not away thy face from thy servant: * for I am in trouble, hear me speedily.
• Attend to my soul, and deliver it: * save me because of my enemies.
• Thou knowest my reproach, and my confusion, * and my shame.
• In thy sight are all they that afflict me; * my heart hath expected reproach and misery.
• And I looked for one that would grieve together with me, * but there was none: and for one that would comfort me, and I found none.
• And they gave me gall for my food, * and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
• Let their table become as a snare before them, * and a recompense, and a stumblingblock.
• Let their eyes be darkened that they see not; * and their back bend thou down always.
• Pour out thy indignation upon them: * and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.
• Let their habitation be made desolate: * and let there be none to dwell in their tabernacles.
• Because they have persecuted him whom thou hast smitten; * and they have added to the grief of my wounds.
• Add thou iniquity upon their iniquity: * and let them not come into thy justice.
• Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; * and with the just let them not be written.
• I am poor and sorrowful: * thy salvation, O God, hath set me up.
• I will praise the name of God with a canticle: * and I will magnify him with praise.
• And it shall please God better than a young calf, * that bringeth forth horns and hoofs.
• Let the poor see and rejoice: * seek ye God, and your soul shall live.
• For the Lord hath heard the poor: * and hath not despised his prisoners.
• Let the heavens and the earth praise him; * the sea, and every thing that creepeth therein.
• For God will save Sion, * and the cities of Juda shall be built up.
• And they shall dwell there, * and acquire it by inheritance.
• And the seed of his servants shall possess it; * and they that love his name shall dwell therein.

Psalm 77

• Attend, O my people, to my law: * incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
• I will open my mouth in parables: * I will utter propositions from the beginning.
• How great things have we heard and known, * and our fathers have told us.
• They have not been hidden from their children, * in another generation.
• Declaring the praises of the Lord, and his powers, * and his wonders which he hath done.
• And he set up a testimony in Jacob: * and made a law in Israel.
• How great things he commanded our fathers, that they should make the same known to their children: * that another generation might know them.
• The children that should be born and should rise up, * and declare them to their children.
• That they may put their hope in God and may not forget the works of God: * and may seek his commandments.
• That they may not become like their fathers, * a perverse and exasperating generation.
• A generation that set not their heart aright: * and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
• The sons of Ephraim who bend and shoot with the bow: * they have turned back in the day of battle.
• They kept not the covenant of God: * and in his law they would not walk.
• And they forgot his benefits, * and his wonders that he had shewn them.
• Wonderful things did he do in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, * in the field of Tanis.
• He divided the sea and brought them through: * and he made the waters to stand as in a vessel.
• And he conducted them with a cloud by day: * and all the night with a light of fire.
• He struck the rock in the wilderness: * and gave them to drink, as out of the great deep.
• He brought forth water out of the rock: * and made streams run down as rivers.
• And they added yet more sin against him: * they provoked the most High to wrath in the place without water.
• And they tempted God in their hearts, * by asking meat for their desires.
• And they spoke ill of God: * they said: Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
• Because he struck the rock, and the waters gushed out, * and the streams overflowed.
• Can he also give bread, * or provide a table for his people?
• Therefore the Lord heard, and was angry: * and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and wrath came up against Israel.
• Because they believed not in God: * and trusted not in his salvation.
• And he had commanded the clouds from above, * and had opened the doors of heaven.
• And had rained down manna upon them to eat, * and had given them the bread of heaven.
• Man ate the bread of angels: * he sent them provisions in abundance.
• He removed the south wind from heaven: * and by his power brought in the southwest wind.
• And he rained upon them flesh as dust: * and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea.
• And they fell in the midst of their camp, * round about their pavilions.
• So they did eat, and were filled exceedingly, and he gave them their desire: * they were not defrauded of that which they craved.
• As yet their meat was in their mouth: * and the wrath of God came upon them.
• And he slew the fat ones amongst them, * and brought down the chosen men of Israel.
• In all these things they sinned still: * and they believed not for his wondrous works.
• And their days were consumed in vanity, * and their years in haste.
• When he slew them, then they sought him: * and they returned, and came to him early in the morning.
• And they remembered that God was their helper: * and the most high God their redeemer.
• And they loved him with their mouth: * and with their tongue they lied unto him:
• But their heart was not right with him: * nor were they counted faithful in his covenant.
• But he is merciful, and will forgive their sins: * and will not destroy them.
• And many a time did he turn away his anger: * and did not kindle all his wrath.
• And he remembered that they are flesh: * a wind that goeth and returneth not.
• How often did they provoke him in the desert: * and move him to wrath in the place without water?
• And they turned back and tempted God: * and grieved the holy one of Israel.
• They remembered not his hand, * in the day that he redeemed them from the hand of him that afflicted them:
• How he wrought his signs in Egypt, * and his wonders in the field of Tanis.
• And he turned their rivers into blood, * and their showers that they might, not drink.
• He sent amongst them diverse sorts of flies, which devoured them: * and frogs which destroyed them.
• And he gave up their fruits to the blast, * and their labours to the locust.
• And he destroyed their vineyards with hail, * and their mulberry trees with hoarfrost.
• And he gave up their cattle to the hail, * and their stock to the fire.
• And he sent upon them the wrath of his indignation: * indignation and wrath and trouble, which he sent by evil angels.
• He made a way for a path to his anger: * he spared not their souls from death, and their cattle he shut up in death.
• And he killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt: * the firstfruits of all their labour in the tabernacles of Cham.
• And he took away his own people as sheep: * and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
• And he brought them out in hope, and they feared not: * and the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
• And he brought them into the mountain of his sanctuary: * the mountain which his right hand had purchased.
• And he cast out the Gentiles before them: * and by lot divided to them their land by a line of distribution.
• And he made the tribes of Israel * to dwell in their tabernacles.
• Yet they tempted, and provoked the most high God: * and they kept not his testimonies.
• And they turned away, and kept not the covenant: * even like their fathers they were turned aside as a crooked bow.
• They provoked him to anger on their hills: * and moved him to jealousy with their graven things.
• God heard, and despised them, * and he reduced Israel exceedingly as it were to nothing.
• And he put away the tabernacle of Silo, * his tabernacle where he dwelt among men.
• And he delivered their strength into captivity: * and their beauty into the hands of the enemy.
• And he shut up his people under the sword: * and he despised his inheritance.
• Fire consumed their young men: * and their maidens were not lamented.
• Their priests fell by the sword: * and their widows did not mourn.
• And the Lord was awaked as one out of sleep, * and like a mighty man that hath been surfeited with wine.
• And he smote his enemies on the hinder parts: * he put them to an everlasting reproach.
• And he rejected the tabernacle of Joseph: * and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
• But he chose the tribe of Juda, * mount Sion which he loved.
• And he built his sanctuary as of unicorns, in the land * which he founded for ever.
• And he chose his servant David, and took him from the flocks of sheep: * he brought him from following the ewes great with young,
• To feed Jacob his servant, * and Israel his inheritance.
• And he fed them in the innocence of his heart: * and conducted them by the skilfulness of his hands.

Psalm 78

• O God, the heathens are come into thy inheritance, they have defiled thy holy temple: * they have made Jerusalem as a place to keep fruit.
• They have given the dead bodies of thy servants to be meat for the fowls of the air: * the flesh of thy saints for the beasts of the earth.
• They have poured out their blood as water, round about Jerusalem, * and there was none to bury them.
• We are become a reproach to our neighbours: * a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
• How long, O Lord, wilt thou be angry for ever: * shall thy zeal be kindled like a fire?
• Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that have not known thee: * and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.
• Because they have devoured Jacob; * and have laid waste his place.
• Remember not our former iniquities: let thy mercies speedily prevent us, * for we are become exceeding poor.
• Help us, O God, our saviour: and for the glory of thy name, O Lord, deliver us: * and forgive us our sins for thy name’s sake:
• Lest they should say among the Gentiles: Where is their God? * And let him be made known among the nations before our eyes,
• By the revenging the blood of thy servants, which hath been shed: * let the sighing of the prisoners come in before thee.
• According to the greatness of thy arm, * take possession of the children of them that have been put to death.
• And render to our neighbours sevenfold in their bosom: * the reproach wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.
• But we thy people, and the sheep of thy pasture, * will give thanks to thee for ever.
• We will shew forth thy praise, * unto generation and generation.

Psalm 82

• O God, who shall be like to thee? * Hold not thy peace, neither be O God, thou still,
• For lo, thy enemies have made a noise: * and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
• They have taken a malicious counsel against thy people, * and have consulted against thy saints.
• They have said: Come and let us destroy them, * so that they be not a nation: and let the name of Israel be remembered no more.
• For they have contrived with one consent: * they have made a covenant together against thee; the tabernacles of the Edomites, and the Ishmaelites:
• Moab, and the Agarens, Gebal, and Ammon and Amalec: * the Philistines, with the inhabitants of Tyre.
• Yea, and the Assyrian also is joined with them: * they are come to the aid of the sons of Lot.
• Do to them as thou didst to Madian and to Sisara: * as to Jabin at the brook of Cisson.
• Who perished at Endor: * and became as dung for the earth.
• Make their princes like Oreb, and Zeb, * and Zebee, and Salmana.
• All their princes, * who have said: Let us possess the sanctuary of God for an inheritance.
• O my God, make them like a wheel; * and as stubble before the wind.
• As fire which burneth the wood: * and as a flame burning mountains:
• So shalt thou pursue them with thy tempest: * and shalt trouble them in thy wrath.
• Fill their faces with shame; * and they shall seek thy name, O Lord.
• Let them be ashamed and troubled for ever and ever: * and let them be confounded and perish.
• And let them know that the Lord is thy name: * thou alone art the most High over all the earth.

Psalm 104

• Give glory to the Lord, and call upon his name: * declare his deeds among the Gentiles.
• Sing to him, yea sing praises to him: * relate all his wondrous works.
• Glory ye in his holy name: * let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.
• Seek ye the Lord, and be strengthened: * seek his face evermore.
• Remember his marvellous works which he hath done; * his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth.
• O ye seed of Abraham his servant; * ye sons of Jacob his chosen.
• He is the Lord our God: * his judgments are in all the earth.
• He hath remembered his covenant for ever: * the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.
• Which he made to Abraham; * and his oath to Isaac:
• And he appointed the same to Jacob for a law, * and to Israel for an everlasting testament:
• Saying: To thee will I give the land of Chanaan, * the lot of your inheritance.
• When they were but a small number: * yea very few, and sojourners therein:
• And they passed from nation to nation, * and from one kingdom to another people.
• He suffered no man to hurt them: * and he reproved kings for their sakes.
• Touch ye not my anointed: * and do no evil to my prophets.
• And he called a famine upon the land: * and he broke in pieces all the support of bread.
• He sent a man before them: * Joseph, who was sold for a slave.
• They humbled his feet in fetters: the iron pierced his soul, * until his word came.
• The word of the Lord inflamed him: * the king sent, and he released him: the ruler of the people, and he set him at liberty.
• He made him master of his house, * and ruler of all his possession.
• That he might instruct his princes as himself, * and teach his ancients wisdom.
• And Israel went into Egypt: * and Jacob was a sojourner in the land of Cham.
• And he increased his people exceedingly: * and strengthened them over their enemies,
• He turned their heart to hate his people: * and to deal deceitfully with his servants.
• He sent Moses his servant: * Aaron the man whom he had chosen.
• He gave them power to shew his signs, * and his wonders in the land of Cham.
• He sent darkness, and made it obscure: * and grieved not his words.
• He turned their waters into blood, * and destroyed their fish.
• Their land brought forth frogs, * in the inner chambers of their kings.
• He spoke, and there came diverse sorts of flies, * and sciniphs in all their coasts.
• He gave them hail for rain, * a burning fire in the land.
• And he destroyed their vineyards, and their fig trees: * and he broke in pieces the trees of their coasts.
• He spoke, and the locust came, and the bruchus, * of which there was no number.
• And they devoured all the grass in their land, * and consumed all the fruit of their ground.
• And he slew all the firstborn in their land: * the firstfruits of all their labour.
• And he brought them out with silver and gold: * and there was not among their tribes one that was feeble.
• Egypt was glad when they departed: * for the fear of them lay upon them.
• He spread a cloud for their protection, * and fire to give them light in the night.
• They asked, and the quail came: * and he filled them with the bread of heaven.
• He opened the rock, and waters flowed: * rivers ran down in the dry land.
• Because he remembered his holy word, * which he had spoken to his servant Abraham.
• And he brought forth his people with joy, * and his chosen with gladness.
• And he gave them the lands of the Gentiles: * and they possessed the labours of the people:
• That they might observe his justifications, * and seek after his law.

Psalm 105

• Give glory to the Lord, for he is good: * for his mercy endureth for ever.
• Who shall declare the powers of the Lord? * who shall set forth all his praises?
• Blessed are they that keep judgment, * and do justice at all times.
• Remember us, O Lord, in the favour of thy people: * visit us with thy salvation.
• That we may see the good of thy chosen, that we may rejoice in the joy of thy nation: * that thou mayst be praised with thy inheritance.
• We have sinned with our fathers: * we have acted unjustly, we have wrought iniquity.
• Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt: * they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies:
• And they provoked to wrath going up to the sea, * even the Red Sea.
• And he saved them for his own name’s sake: * that he might make his power known.
• And he rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up: * and he led them through the depths, as in a wilderness.
• And he saved them from the hand of them that hated them: * and he redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
• And the water covered them that afflicted them: * there was not one of them left.
• And they believed his words: * and they sang his praises.
• They had quickly done, they forgot his works: * and they waited not for his counsels.
• And they coveted their desire in the desert: * and they tempted God in the place without water.
• And he gave them their request: * and sent fulness into their souls.
• And they provoked Moses in the camp, * Aaron the holy one of the Lord.
• The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan: * and covered the congregation of Abiron.
• And a fire was kindled in their congregation: * the flame burned the wicked.
• They made also a calf in Horeb: * and they adored the graven thing.
• And they changed their glory * into the likeness of a calf that eateth grass.
• They forgot God, who saved them, * who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Cham: terrible things in the Red Sea.
• And he said that he would destroy them: * had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach:
• To turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them; * and they set at nought the desirable land.
• They believed not his word, and they murmured in their tents: * they hearkened not to the voice of the Lord.
• And he lifted up his hand over them: * to overthrow them in the desert;
• And to cast down their seed among the nations, * and to scatter them in the countries.
• They also were initiated to Beelphegor: * and ate the sacrifices of the dead.
• And they provoked him with their inventions: * and destruction was multiplied among them.
• Then Phinees stood up, and pacified him: * and the slaughter ceased.
• And it was reputed to him unto justice, * to generation and generation for evermore.
• They provoked him also at the waters of contradiction: * and Moses was afflicted for their sakes: because they exasperated his spirit.
• And he distinguished with his lips; * they did not destroy the nations of which the Lord spoke unto them.
• And they were mingled among the heathens, and learned their works: and served their idols, * and it became a stumblingblock to them.
• And they sacrificed their sons, * and their daughters to devils.
• And they shed innocent blood: * the blood of their sons and of their daughters which they sacrificed to the idols of Chanaan.
• And the land was polluted with blood, and was defiled with their works: * and they went aside after their own inventions.
• And the Lord was exceedingly angry with his people: * and he abhorred his inheritance.
• And he delivered them into the hands of the nations: * and they that hated them had dominion over them.
• And their enemies afflicted them: and they were humbled under their hands: * many times did he deliver them.
• But they provoked him with their counsel: * and they were brought low by their iniquities.
• And he saw when they were in tribulation: * and he heard their prayer.
• And he was mindful of his covenant: * and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.
• And he gave them unto mercies, * in the sight of all those that had made them.
• Save us, O Lord, our God: * and gather us from among nations:
• That we may give thanks to thy holy name, * and may glory in thy praise.
• Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting: * and let all the people say: So be it, so be it.

Prayer

Look down, we beseech thee, O Lord, on this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ did not hesitate to be delivered up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer the torment of the Cross.

Who with thee liveth and reigneth, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.