(Make the sign of the cross with your right thumb on your lips, saying:)

Lord, open my lips and my mouth will proclaim your praise.

INVITATORY: With hymns of praise, exult in the presence of God.

Psalm 47 (46)
All peoples, clap your hands,
cry to God with shouts of joy!
For the Lord, the Most High, we must fear,
great king over all the earth.

He subdues peoples under us
and nations under our feet.
Our inheritance, our glory, is from him,
given to Jacob out of love.

God goes up with shouts of joy;
the Lord goes up with trumpet blast.
Sing praise for God, sing praise,
sing praise to our king, sing praise.

God is king of all the earth,
sing praise with all your skill.
God is king over the nations;
God reigns on his holy throne.

The leaders of the people are assembled
with the people of Abraham's God.
The rulers of the earth belong to God,
to God who reigns over all.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen

With hymns of praise, exult in the presence of God.

ANT: O God, you are great and glorious; we marvel at your power.

Canticle 4 (Judith 4)
I will sing a new song to my God.
O Lord, you are great and all glory is yours!
You are unsurpassable and marvelous in might;
may all your creation serve you!

For you spoke and all came into being,
created by the breath of your mouth.
No one can resist your mighty voice!
It shakes the mountains to their foundations,
and the rocks melt before it like wax.

Yet you are gentle and merciful to those who revere you.
For no sacrifice we offer you will please you with its fragrance,
and the fat we burn in holocaust is of lesser value still.
Only he who fears the Lord is of any value.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen

ANT: O God, you are great and glorious; we marvel at your power.

READING (Deuteronomy 7:6,8-9)
The Lord, your God, has chosen you from all the nations
on the face of the earth to be a people peculiarly his own.
It was because the Lord loved you
and because of his fidelity to the oath he had sworn to your fathers,
that he brought you out with his strong hand from the place of slavery,
and ransomed you from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
Understand, then, that the Lord, your God, is God indeed
the faithful God who keeps his merciful covenant
to the thousandth generation toward those who love him
and keep his commandments.

[Reflect on the Reading, applying it to your life today.]

ANT: This evil and faithless generation asks for a sign
but no sign will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

CANTICLE OF ZECHARIAH (Luke 1:68-79)
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
he has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior,
born of the house of his servant David.

Through his holy prophets he promised of old
that he would save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all who hate us.

He promised to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant.
This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham;
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
free to worship him without fear,
holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
to give his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.

In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen

ANT: This evil and faithless generation asks for a sign
but no sign will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

INTERCESSIONS

Lord, renew us daily through your Spirit,
that we may enjoy your presence for ever in the heavenly Jerusalem.

Help us to work with you to make this world alive with your Spirit,
and to build on earth a city of justice, love and peace.

Deliver us from evil and from slavery to the things of this world
which blinds us to your goodness.

Let us bring your goodness to those we meet today.

[Pray for your special intentions.]

OUR FATHER
And now we pray to God the Father in the words that Jesus taught us.

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.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen

PRAYER
Lord, look upon us and hear our prayer.
By the good works you inspire,
help us to discipline our bodies
and to be renewed in spirit.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen