Lord, show us your mercy and love. – And grant us your salvation. READINGS First reading From the book of the prophet Isaiah 30:18-26 The promise of future happiness The Lord is waiting to show you favor, and he rises to pity you; For the Lord is a God of justice: blessed are all who wait for him! O people of Zion, who dwell in Jerusalem, no more will you weep; He will be gracious to you when you cry out, as soon as he hears he will answer you. The Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst. No longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher, While from behind, a voice shall sound in your ears: “This is the way; walk in it,” when you would turn to the right or to the left. And you shall consider unclean your silver-plated idols and your gold-covered images; You shall throw them away like filthy rags to which you say, “Begone!” He will give rain for the seed that you sow in the ground, And the wheat that the soil produces will be rich and abundant. On that day your cattle will graze in spacious meadows; The oxen and the asses that till the ground will eat silage tossed to them with shovel and pitchfork. Upon every high mountain and lofty hill there will be streams of running water. On the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall, The light of the moon will be like that of the sun and the light of the sun will be seven times greater [like the light of seven days]. On the day the Lord binds up the wounds of his people, he will heal the bruises left by his blows. RESPONSORY Isaiah 30:26, 18; Psalm 27:14 On that day the Lord will bind up the wounds of his people, and God will heal the bruises left by the stroke of his judgment. – Happy are all who await him. Wait for the Lord, act courageously; let your heart be strong and uphold the Lord. – Happy are all who await him. Second reading From a discourse On the Contemplation of God by William of Saint Thierry, abbot He loved us first Truly you alone are the Lord. Your dominion is our salvation, for to serve you is nothing else but to be saved by you! O Lord, salvation is your gift and your blessing is upon your people; what else is your salvation but receiving from you the gift of loving you or being loved by you? That, Lord, is why you willed that the Son at your right hand, the One whom you made strong for yourself, should be called Jesus, that is to say, Savior, for he will save his pople from their sins, and there is no other in whom there is salvation. He taught us to love him by first loving us, even to death on the cross. By loving us and holding us so dear, he stirred us to love him who had first loved us to the end. And this is clearly the reason: you first loved us so that we might love you–not because you needed our love, but because we could not be what you created us to be, except by loving you. In many ways and on various occasions you spoke to our fathers through the prophets. Now in these last days you have spoken to us in the Son, your Word; by him the heavens were established and all their powers came to be by the breath of his mouth. For you to speak thus in your Son was to bring out in the light of day how much and in what way you loved us, for you did not spare your own Son but delivered him up for us all. He also loved us and gave himself up for us. This, Lord, is your Word to us, this is your all-powerful message: while all things were in midnight silence (that is, were in the depths of error), he came from his royal throne, the stern conqueror of error and the gentle apostle of love. Everything he did and everything he said on earth, even enduring the insults, the spitting, the buffeting–the cross and the grave–all of this was actually you speaking to us in your Son, appealing to us by your love and stirring up our love for you. You know that this disposition could not be forced on our hearts, my God, since you created us; it must rather be elicited. And this, for the further reason that there is no freedom where there is compulsion, and where freedom is lacking, so too is righteousness. You wanted us to love you, then, we who could not with justice have been saved had we not loved you, nor could we have loved you except by your gift. So, Lord, as the apostle of your love tells us, and as we have already said, you first loved us: you are first to love all those who love you. Thus we hold you dear by the affection you have implanted in us. You are the one supremely good and ultimate goodness. Your love is your goodness, the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son! From the beginning of creation it was he who hovered over the waters–that is, over the wavering minds of us all, offering himself to all, drawing all things to himself. By his inspiration and holy breath, by keeping us from harm and providing for our needs, he unites God to us and us to God. RESPONSORY Isaiah 54:10 My mercy will not leave you, and the covenant of my peace will not be changed; – I shall make all your sons learned in the Lord, and they shall enjoy a lasting peace. I am the Lord your God who teaches you what is good and guides you in the path you should walk. – I shall make all your sons learned in the Lord, and they shall enjoy a lasting peace.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 22:12:11 +0000
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