Order of Prayers 5
3:00-5:00 a.m.
Opening Prayer
This short introductory prayer is traditional in our Society. It helps us to set the tone, spirit, and purpose of our recitation.
ALL KNEEL
Leader: (as all bless themselves with the Sign of the Cross)
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen
O sacrament most holy, O sacrament divine.All: All praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine.
Leader: Blessed be the holy and immaculate conception.
All: Of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God.
THE INVITATION TO PRAYER
ALL STAND and make the Sign of the Cross on their lips as the Leader says:
Leader: O Lord, open my lips
All: and I will proclaim your praise.
Leader: Come, let us adore Christ, the Lord, the bread of life.
All: Come, let us adore Christ, the Lord, the bread of life.
PSALM 95
Leader: O come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the
rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!All: Come, let us adore Christ, the Lord, the bread of life.
Leader: For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods,
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
The Sea is his, for he made it,
and the dry land, which his hands have formed.All: Come, let us adore Christ, the Lord, the bread of life.
Leader: O Come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our maker!
For he is our god, and the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
O that today, you would listen to his voice!All: Come, let us adore Christ, the Lord, the bread of life.
Leader: Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof,
though they had seen my work.All: Come, let us adore Christ, the Lord, the bread of life.
Leader: For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they do not regard my ways."
Therefore in my anger I swore "They shall not enter my rest."All: Come, let us adore Christ, the Lord, the bread of life.
Left Reader: Glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All: As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Come, let us adore Christ, the Lord, the bread of life.Leader: The Lord is compassionate;
All: He gives food to those who fear him, as a remembrance of his great deeds.
PSALM 107 - I
(Leader) Overwhelmed by the great goodness of God, the psalmist sings a hymn of praise and thanksgiving to God for all that he has done for his people. We use his words to praise and thank God for all he has done for us. Because of its length, the psalm is divided into three sections for this hour.
Leader: O give thanks to the Lord for he is good,
All SIT
Right Side: for his steadfast love endures forever.
Left Side: Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those he redeemed from trouble,
R: and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
L: Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to an inhabited town;
R: hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them.
L: Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress;
R: he led them by a straight way, until they reached an inhabited town.
L: Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.
R: For he satisfies the thirsty, and the hungry he fills with good things.
L: Some sat in darkness and in gloom, prisoners in misery and in irons,
R: for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the most High.
L: Their hearts were bowed down with hard labor; they fell down, with no one to help.
R: Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress;
L: he brought them out of the darkness and gloom, and broke their bonds asunder.
R: Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.
L: For he shatters the doors of bronze, and cuts in two the bars of iron.
All: Glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
All: The lord is compassionate; he gives food to those who fear him, as a remembrance of his great deeds.Right Reader STANDS
Right Reader: The Lord brings peace to his church,
All: And fills us with the finest wheat.
PSALM 107 - II
Right Reader: Some were sick through their sinful ways,
Right Side: and because of their iniquities endured affliction;
Left Side: they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death.
R: Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress;
L: he sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from destruction.
R: Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.
L: And let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices, and tell of his deeds with songs of joy.
R: Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the mighty waters;
L: they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep.
R: For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.
L: They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their calamity;
R: they reeled and staggered like drunkards, and were at their wits' end.
L: Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out from their distress;
R: he made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.
L: Then they were glad because they had quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.
R: Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.
Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
All: Glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. Amen.
All: The Lord brings peace to his Church, and fills us with the finest wheat.
Left Reader STANDS
Left Reader: Truly I say to you:
All: Moses did not give you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
PSALM 107 - III
Left Reader: He turns rivers into a desert,
Left Reader SITS
Left Side: Springs of water into thirsty ground,
Right Side: a fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.
L: He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water.
R: And there he lets the hungry live, and they establish a town to live in;
L: they sow fields, and plant vineyards, and get a fruitful yield.
R: By his blessing they multiply greatly, and he does not let their cattle decrease.
L: When they are diminished and brought low through oppression, trouble, and sorrow,
R: he pours contempt on princes and makes them wander in trackless wastes;
L: but he raises up the needy out of distress, and makes their families like flocks.
R: The upright see it and are glad; and all wickedness stops its mouth.
L: Let those who are wise give heed to these things, and consider the steadfast love of the Lord.
All: Glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
All: Truly I say to you: Moses did not give you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
Leader STANDS
Leader: You nourished your people with the food of angels
All: And furnished them bread from heaven.
Leader: A Reading from the Book of Exodus (16:1-8, 13-17, 31, 35)
Faith and trust in God can be a very fragile thing! The Israelites after generations of painful servitude in Egypt had seen their prayers answered. Their march to freedom and a promised land had been preceded and accompanied by startling miracles. There had been the "plagues" in Egypt, and the spectacular crossing of the Red Sea. But in spite of such and many other wonders, their faith began to waver when the going got particularly hard. Trekking through the heat and aridity of desert lands, with food scarce and unpalatable when it could be had, they complained bitterly, and were loudly vocal to Moses and Aaron against a God hard-hearted enough to bring them to such a plight. Their ingratitude stirred the Almighty to anger. But at the intercession of Moses, rather than visit punishment on his people, the Almighty rained down a special food for them — quails in the evening and manna in the morning. The manna has from the earliest Christian times been considered as a prefigure of the bread of the Eucharist, whereby Christ gives himself as the food of our souls. (Pause a few moments here.)
The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
Then the Lord said to Moses, "I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days."
So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaining against the Lord. For what are we, that you complain against us?" And Moses said, "When the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the Lord has heard the complaining that you utter against him — what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord."
In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: 'Gather as much of it as each of you needs, an omer a person according to the number of persons, all providing for those in their own tents."
The house of Israel called it manna; it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a habitable land; they ate manna, until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.
Leader SITS and pauses for at least two minutes to give the adorers time to think on what he has just read to them.
Leader STANDS
Leader: You gave your people the food of angels, sending them bread from heaven already prepared.
All: Containing every delight, satisfying every taste.
Leader: It was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven; it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.
All: Containing every delight, satisfying every taste.
Leader SITS
Reader (Optional Left or Right) STANDS
Reader: A reading from Saint Hilary's Treatise on the Holy Trinity
The manna was a great miracle of God's compassion for His rebellious people. An even greater miracle was the fact that through it he sustained his chosen people for forty long years.
Saint Hilary, the great bishop of Poitiers in France, who lived in the fourth century, was deeply struck by the sight of God's goodness in sustaining the physical life of His people for so many years. But he was much more impressed by the mystery of the Eucharist sustaining man's spiritual life. Studying the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, he marveled that man should share the very life of God through grace. But he felt his words inadequate to explain the goodness of God in sustaining that life through the food of the Holy Eucharist. The following extract gives us his deep thought in the matter. (Pause a moment here)
If the Word was truly made flesh, and if we truly receive the Word made flesh in the Lord's food, why should we not hold that he remains within us naturally? For when he was born as a man, he assumed the nature of our flesh in such a way that it became inseparable from himself; and he joined the nature of his flesh to the nature of his eternity in the sacrament of his flesh which he allows us to share. Accordingly, we are all one, because the Father is in Christ, and Christ is in us. He is in us through the flesh, and we are in him; and being united with him, what we are is in God.
His own words testify to the fact that we are in him through the sacrament by which we share in his flesh and blood: "And this world will see me no more, but you will see me; because I live, you will live also. For I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." If he wished us to conceive solely of a unity of will, why did he speak of a kind of graduated scale to be achieved? Surely it was to teach us that, while he is in the Father by the nature of his divinity, we on the contrary are in him through his bodily birth, and he again is in us by the mystery of the sacraments. From this we can learn the unity which has been achieved through the Mediator; for we abide in him and he abides in the Father, and while abiding in the Father he abides in us. In this way, we attain to unity with the Father. For while Christ is in the Father naturally according to his birth, we too are in Christ naturally, since he abides in us naturally.
We can learn how natural this unity is from his own words: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him." No one can be in Christ unless Christ is in him; for Christ has taken to himself the flesh only of those who receive his flesh.
He had earlier revealed to us the sacrament of this unity when he said: "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats my flesh will live because of me." He lives because of the Father, we live because of his flesh.
Reader SITS and pauses at least two minutes to give the adorers time to think on what has just been read to them.
Reader STANDSReader: I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate manna in the desert, and they died.
All: I am speaking of the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and never die.
Reader: I am the living bread which comes down from heaven; if anyone eats this bread he shall live forever.
All: I am speaking of the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and never die.
All STAND
Leader: Let us pray (a slight pause here)
Lord, Jesus Christ, you gave your church an admirable sacrament as the abiding memorial of your passion. Teach us so to worship the sacred mystery of your body and blood, that its redeeming power may sanctify us always, who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
All: Amen.
Antiphon in Honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Leader: Loving mother of the Redeemer,
All: Gate of heaven, and star of the sea, assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again. To the wonderment of nature, you bore your Creator, yet remained a virgin after as before. You who received Gabriel's joyful greeting, have pity on us poor sinners.
All SIT
Here the Leader announces a period of silent meditative prayer. (5-7 minutes)
MORNING PRAYER
All STAND
Leader: O God, come to my assistance.
All: Lord, make haste to help me.
All: Glory be to the Father, the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
The following hymn may be recited or sung - preferably sung, whenever possible. See No. 280 of the General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours. Any other better known hymn to the Blessed Sacrament may be substituted for this one, if so desired.
HYMN
Leader: At that first Eucharist before you died,
Right Side:
O Lord, you prayed that all be one in you;
At this our Eucharist again preside,
And in our hearts your law of love renew.All:
Thus may we all one bread, one body be;
Through this blest sacrament of unity.Left Side:
For all your church, O Lord, we intercede:
O make our lack of charity to cease;
Draw us the nearer each to each we plead
By drawing all to you, O Prince of Peace.All:
Thus may we all one bread, one body be;
Through this blest sacrament of unity.Right Side:
We pray for those who wander from the fold;
O bring them back, Good Shepherd of the sheep,
Back to the faith which saints believed of old,
Back to the church which still that faith does keep.All:
Thus may we all one bread, one body be;
Through this blest sacrament of Unity.Leader: you fed your people with the bread of angels;
All: You gave them bread from heaven.
PSALM 92
(Leader) Looking over God's incredible goodness to him, King David finds deep satisfaction in sending up his praises to the Almighty. We, too, realizing God's great goodness in giving us the sacrament of the Eucharist, sing our praises to God in David's words.
Leader: It is good to give thanks to the Lord
All SIT
Right Side: To sing praises to your name, O most high;
Left Side: to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,
R: to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre.
L: For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
R: How great are your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep!
L: The dullard cannot know, the stupid cannot understand this:
R: though the wicked sprout like grass, and all evildoers flourish,
L: they are doomed to destruction forever, but you, O Lord, are on high forever.
R: For your enemies, O Lord, for your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered.
L: But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; you have poured over me fresh oil.
R: My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies; my ears have head the doom of my evil assailants.
L: The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
R: They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God.
L: In old age they still produce fruit; they are always green and full of sap,
R: showing that the Lord is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
All: Glory be to the Father, the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
All: You fed your people with the bread of angels; you gave them bread from heaven.
Right Reader STANDS
Right Reader: Holy priests
All: Will offer incense and bread to God.
CANTICLE (Deuteronomy 32:1-12)
(Right Reader) This is the "swan song" of Moses. For a long span of years he had faithfully served God and his fellow men. Knowing that his death was very near, he spoke the words of this canticle which celebrates the unique power of God. That same divine power has been good to us too.
Right Reader: Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak;
Right Reader SITS
Right Side: let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
L: May my teaching drop like the rain, my speech condense like the dew;
R: Like gentle rain on grass, like showers on new growth.
L: For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God!
R: The Rock, his work is perfect, and all his ways are just.
L: A faithful God, without deceit, just and upright is he;
R: yet his degenerate children have dealt falsely with him, a perverse and crooked generation.
L: Do you thus repay the Lord, O foolish and senseless people?
R: Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?
L: Remember the days of old, consider the years long past;
R: ask your father, and he will inform you; your elders, and they will tell you.
L: When the Most High apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the gods;
R: the Lord's own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share.
L: He sustained him in a desert land, in a howling wilderness waste; he shielded him, cared for him, guarded him as the apple of his eye.
R: As an eagle stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young; as it spreads its wings, takes them up, and bears them aloft on its pinions,
L: the Lord alone guided him; no foreign god was with him;
All: Holy priests will offer incense and bread to God.
Left Reader STANDS
Left Reader: I will give to the victorious
All: The hidden bread and a new name.
PSALM 8
(Left Reader) Here King David extols the glory of God and the greatness of man's dignity. Our dignity as Christians comes mainly from the sacrament of Christ's death. David's words express our sentiments perfectly.
Left Reader: O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name
Left Reader SITS
Left Side: in all the earth!
Right Side: You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes
L: you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and avenger.
R: When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;
L: what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
R: Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
L: You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,
R: all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
L: the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas,
R: O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
All: Glory be to the Father, the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
All: I will give to the victorious the hidden bread and a new name.
Leader STANDS
Leader: A short reading from the Acts of the Apostles (2:42, 46, 47)
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Leader SITS and pauses a couple of minutes to allow the adorers to think on what has just been read to them.All STAND
Leader: The lowly shall eat their fill.
All : The lowly shall eat their fill.
Leader: Those who seek the Lord shall praise him.
All: The lowly shall eat their fill.
Leader: How holy is the mystery
All: in which Christ is our food; His passion is recalled; grace fills our hearts; and we receive a pledge of the glory to come.
GOSPEL CANTICLE (Luke 1:68-79)
Right Reader, as all sign themselves with the Sign of the Cross:
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel;Right Side: for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
Left Side: He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David,
R: as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
L: Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant,
R: The oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
L: might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
R: And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
L: to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins.
R: By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us,
L: to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."
All: Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
All: How holy is this mystery in which Christ is our food; His passion is recalled; grace fills our hearts; and we receive a pledge of the glory to come.
INTERCESSIONS
Leader: Let us pray to Jesus for the bread of life, by saying:
All: Happy those who eat bread in your kingdom.
Leader: Christ, priest of the new and eternal covenant, you offered to the Father the perfect sacrifice on the altar of the cross,
All: Teach us to frequently offer it with you.
Right Reader: Christ, ever concerned for peace and justice, you consecrated bread and wine as the sign and renewal of your sacrifice,
All: Let our offering of ourselves, our lives and actions, share in yours for the glory of your name.
Right Reader: Christ, model of dedication to the Father, your pure sacrifice is offered by the church from east to west, and from dawn to dusk,
All: Through that sacrifice unite into one body — your body — those you have fed with the bread of life.
Left Reader: Christ, Manna from heaven, you feed the church and keep it alive and fruitful by your body and blood,
All: May we all walk in the strength of that food, and be instruments of your redemption on this earth.
Left Reader: Christ, the invisible guest at our banquet, you stand at the door of our souls, and knock,
All: May we always answer your call, welcome you, and eat your heavenly bread.
Leader: We are spending this time in prayer and sacrifice in union with you and in direct answer to your invitation to "watch with you,"
All: Make us true adorers in spirit and in truth, fully and lovingly aware of your sacrificial presence in the Eucharist.
Leader: Christ, you died that we might live, and commanded us to renew your death on our altars,
All: Bring those of our Society who have died, to eternal resurrection with you, that they may continue in eternity the adoration they gave you while they were on earth with us.
Leader: We pause a few moments.
Here adorers are encouraged to make know and share their intentions. They should be brief and direct. When all have spoken.Leader: Lord, we have made known and shared with each other our needs,
All: In your goodness hear our confident prayers.
Leader: And now, let us pattern our prayer on the prayer of Christ, our Lord and say:
All: Our Father who art in heaven;......
Leader: Let us pray. (Pause a moment)
Leader: Lord Jesus Christ, we worship you living among us in the sacrament of your Body and Blood. May we offer to our Father in heaven a solemn pledge of undivided love. May we offer to all a life truly dedicated to the service of that kingdom where you live with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
All: Amen.
Leader: May the Lord bless us all, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.
All: Amen.
All KNEEL
Leader: Prayer to our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament.
All: O Virgin immaculate, mother of Jesus and our own mother, our Lady of the most Blessed Sacrament, we honor you. It was from you that our Savior, present and living in the Holy Eucharist, took his flesh and blood, the same flesh and blood which he offered in sacrifice to the Father, and with which he feeds us in Holy Communion. Give us a deeper appreciation of the Eucharistic mystery, an unwavering loyalty to the words of your Son: "This is my body . . . this is my blood," a practical faith in what the Holy Eucharist means to the church whose living presence we honor by our presence here. May we be blessed through your intercession, for, in the divine plan, it was you who made it possible for us to receive the source of life, our Lord, Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns in the Holy Eucharist for love of us. Amen.
The Leader announces a period of silent prayer stating how many minutes it will last (usually 5-7 minutes).
When that time is over the Leader announces one of the prayers in Part III Prayer of Adoration, or Thanksgiving, or Reparation, or Petition.
N.B. The idea is to offer variety by using different sections every month. If there is time two sections may be used - for example adoration and reparation, one month; thanksgiving and petition, another month; adoration and thanksgiving, etc., etc. in any combination, different each month. The Moderator will determine what practice to follow.
Five minutes before the end of the hour the Leader says:
Prayers for the Deceased
The Leader finishes the hour with
Prayers for the intentions of the Holy Father, to gain the plenary indulgence granted for the Hour.
Our Father (once).
Hail Mary (once).