Solemnity of St. Joseph
Leader: O Lord, open my lips. All: And my mouth shall declare your praise.
Come let us worship Christ the Lord who for our sake endured temptation and suffering.
Psalm 81
Antiphon: Ring out your joy to God our strength.
Ring out your joy to God our strength,
shout in triumph to the God of Jacob.
Raise a song and sound the timbrel,
the sweet-sounding harp and the lute;
blow the trumpet at the new moon,
when the moon is full, on our feast.
For this is Israel’s law,
a command of the God of Jacob.
He imposed it as a rule on Joseph,
when he went out against the land of Egypt.
A voice I did not know said to me:
“I freed your shoulder from the burden;
your hands were freed from the load.
You called in distress and I saved you.
I answered, concealed in the storm cloud;
at the waters of Meribah I tested you.
Listen, my people, to my warning.
O Israel, if only you would heed!
Let there be no foreign god among you.
no worship of an alien god.
I am the Lord your God,
who brought you from the land of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.
But my people did not heed my voice
and Israel would not obey,
so I left them in their stubbornness of heart
to follow their own designs.
O that my people would heed me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
At once I would subdue their foes,
turn my hand against their enemies.
The Lord’s enemies would cringe at their feet
and their subjection would last for ever.
But Israel I would feed with finest wheat
and fill them with honey from the rock.”
Glory to the Father...
Antiphon: Ring out your joy to God our strength.
Reading: From the Treatise On the Psalms by St. Hilary
For us the fear of God consists wholly in love, and perfect love of God brings our fear of him to its perfection. Our love for God is entrusted with its own responsibility: to observe his counsels, to obey his laws, to trust his promises. Let us hear what Scripture says: And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you except to fear the Lord your God and walk in all his ways and love him and keep his commandments, with your whole heart and your whole soul, so that it may be well for you?
The ways of the Lord are many, though he is himself the way. When he speaks of himself he calls himself the way and shows us the reason why he called himself the way: No one can come to the Father except through me.
We must ask for these many ways, to find the one that is good. That is, we shall find the one way of eternal life through the guidance of many teachers. These ways are found in the law, in the prophets, in the gospels, in the writings of the apostles, in the different good works by which we fulfill the commandments. Blessed are those who walk these ways in the fear of the Lord.
Pray either the Canticle of Zechariah or the Canticle of Mary. You can find them here.
Antiphon for the Canticle of Zechariah: Son, remember the good things you received in your lifetime and the bad things Lazarus received in his.
Antiphon for the Canticle of Mary: The rich man, who had refused Lazarus a crust of bread, pleaded for a drop of water.
Intercessions
May we seek to please you in all we do.
Lord, give new life to your people!
Give us a deeper thirst for you.
Lord, give new life to your people!
Direct our steps in the paths of truth.
Lord, give new life to your people!
Dear Father,
Bring us back to you. Do not let us be distracted by the passing things of this world. We ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son who lives with you and the Holy Spirit forever. Amen.
