← Prayer Book
Office of Readings
Friday, December 19, 2025 • Advent, Week 3 — Friday
Opening
O God, come to my assistance.
Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Invitatory
Ant. Come, let us adore the Lord who is coming to bring salvation to his people.
Come, let us exult in the Lord; let us shout with joy to God our salvation.
Let us come before his face with praise and exult in him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods.
For the Lord does not cast off his people; for in his hand are all the ends of the earth.
And the heights of the mountains belong to him.
For the sea is his, and he made it; and his hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us adore and fall down before God; let us weep before the Lord who made us.
For he is the Lord our God; and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness,
where your fathers tempted me; they tried me and saw my works.
For forty years I was close to this generation, and I said: "They always err in heart."
And these people have not known my ways, so I swore in my wrath that they will not enter into my rest.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Ant. Come, let us adore the Lord who is coming to bring salvation to his people.
Hymn
The King Shall Come
The King shall come when morning dawns
and light triumphant breaks,
when beauty gilds the eastern hills
and life to joy awakes.
and light triumphant breaks,
when beauty gilds the eastern hills
and life to joy awakes.
Psalmody
Psalm 58Rescue from Enemies
Ant. Come, Lord Jesus, for whom we long; fill your people with your blessing.
Rescue me from my enemies, O my God, and protect me from those who rise up against me.
Rescue me from those who work iniquity, and save me from men of blood.
For behold they have caught my soul; the strong have rushed in upon me.
Neither is it my iniquity nor my sin, O Lord; without iniquity I have run and directed.
Rise up to meet me and see; and you, Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel.
Attend so as to visit all the Gentiles; do not spare any who work iniquity.
They will return in the evening and they will suffer hunger like dogs and will circle the city.
Behold, they will speak in their mouth, and a sword is on their lips.
"For who has heard us?"
But you, O Lord, will laugh at them; you will bring all the Gentiles to nothing.
I will keep my strength to you, for you, O God, are my support.
My God, his mercy will precede me.
God will let me see over my enemies; do not slay them, lest at some time my people forget.
Scatter them by your power and bring them down, O Lord, my shield.
The sin of their mouth, the word of their lips, and let them be caught in their pride.
And because of their cursing and lying, they will be proclaimed in consummation, in the wrath of consummation, and they will be no more.
And they will know that God will rule Jacob and all the ends of the earth.
They will return in the evening and will suffer hunger like dogs and will circle the city.
They will be dispersed to eat; but if they are not satisfied, they will murmur.
But I will sing your strength, and in the morning I will exult in your mercy.
For you have been my supporter and my refuge in the day of my tribulation.
You, my helper, I will sing to you; for you, O God, are my support, my God, my mercy.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Ant. Come, Lord Jesus, for whom we long; fill your people with your blessing.
Psalm 59Prayer After Defeat
Ant. Come, Lord Jesus, for whom we long; fill your people with your blessing.
O God, you have rejected us and have destroyed us; you have been angry and you have shown mercy to us.
You have moved the earth and troubled it; heal its wounds, for it has been moved.
You have shown your people harsh things; you have given us wine of sorrow to drink.
You have given a sign to those who fear you, so that they may flee from before the bow, so that your beloved may be rescued.
Save with your right hand and hear me, so that those whom you love may be rescued.
God has spoken in his holy place; I will rejoice, and I will divide Shechem, and I will measure out the valley of tents.
Gilead is mine and Manasseh is mine; and Ephraim is the strength of my head.
Judah is my king; Moab, the pot of my hope.
Into Edom I will extend my shoe; the foreigners have been made subject to me.
Who will lead me into the reinforced city? Who will lead me even into Edom?
Will it not be you, O God, who have rejected us and will you not, O God, go out in our armies?
Give us help from tribulation; for the salvation of man is useless.
Through God we will be strengthened; and he will bring our enemies to nothing.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Ant. Come, Lord Jesus, for whom we long; fill your people with your blessing.
Psalm 60Confidence in God's Protection
Ant. Come, Lord Jesus, for whom we long; fill your people with your blessing.
Hear, O God, my supplication; attend to my prayer.
I cried out to you from the ends of the earth, when my heart was in anguish; you have exalted me on a rock.
You have led me, for you have been my hope: a tower of strength against the face of the enemy.
I will dwell in your tabernacle forever; I will be covered under the cover of your wings.
For you, my God, have heard my prayer; you have given an inheritance to those who fear your name.
You will add days to the days of the king; his years will be even to the day of every generation.
He endures forever in the sight of God; who will seek the mercy and truth of him?
So I will sing a psalm to your name forever and ever, so that I may repay my vows from day to day.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Ant. Come, Lord Jesus, for whom we long; fill your people with your blessing.
First Reading: Scripture
Zechariah 9:9
Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Second Reading: Patristic or Hagiographic
The Purpose of the Incarnation
Our Savior, dearly beloved, was born today. Let us rejoice. For there is no proper place for sadness when we keep the birthday of the Life which drives away the fear of death and brings to us the joy of promised eternity. No one is kept from sharing in this happiness. There is for all one common measure of joy, because as our Lord the destroyer of sin and death finds no one free from charge, so he came to free us all. Let the saint exult in that he approaches victory. Let the sinner be glad in that he is invited to pardon. Let the gentile take courage in that he is called to life. For the Son of God in the fullness of time which the inscrutable depth of the divine counsel has determined, took on him the nature of man, thereby to reconcile it to its Author; in order that the inventor of death, the devil, might be conquered through that very nature which he had conquered. In this conflict undertaken for us, the fight was fought on great and wonderful principles of fairness; for the Almighty Lord enters the lists with his fierce foe not in his own majesty but in our humility.
Responsory
V. Come, Lord Jesus, do not delay.
R. Come, Lord Jesus, do not delay.
V. Give new courage to your people,
R. who trust in your word.
Concluding Prayer
God of all hope, grant that these readings may nourish in us the hope that does not disappoint; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Dismissal
Let us praise the Lord.
And give him thanks.