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Office of Readings
Monday, January 5, 2026 • January 5 (St. John Neumann)
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. Christ the Savior is born. Come, let us adore him.
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. Christ the Savior is born. Come, let us adore him.
Hymn
What Child Is This
What child is this, who, laid to rest,
on Mary's lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
while shepherds watch are keeping?
on Mary's lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
while shepherds watch are keeping?
Psalmody
Psalm 25A Prayer of Trust
Ant. Today Christ is born for us; glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.
To you, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul. My God, I trust in you; let me not be confounded.
Let not my enemies laugh at me; for all those who endure you will not be confounded.
Let all who act iniquity without cause be confounded.
O Lord, show your ways to me, and teach me your paths.
Direct me in your truth and teach me; for you are the God of my salvation, and for you I have waited all day long.
Remember, O Lord, your compassion and your mercies, which have been from the beginning.
Do not remember the sins of my youth and my ignorances.
Remember me according to your mercy, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.
The Lord is sweet and righteous; therefore he will give a law to those who are sinning on the way.
He will direct the mild in judgment; he will teach the meek his ways.
All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth for those who seek his covenant and his testimonies.
For the sake of your name, O Lord, you will pardon my sin, for it is great.
Who is the man who fears the Lord? He has appointed him a law in the way he has chosen.
His soul will dwell in good things, and his seed will inherit the earth.
The Lord is a firmament to those who fear him, and his covenant will be revealed to them.
My eyes are always toward the Lord; for he will pluck my feet from the snare.
Look upon me and have mercy on me; for I am alone and poor.
The troubles of my heart have been multiplied; deliver me from my necessities.
See my humility and my labor, and release all my offenses.
Consider my enemies, for they have been multiplied and they have hated me with an unjust hatred.
Guard my soul and rescue me; let me not be confounded, for I have hoped in you.
The innocent and the upright have adhered to me, because I have waited for you.
Deliver Israel, O God, from all his tribulations.
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. Today Christ is born for us; glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.
Psalm 26The Lord Is My Light
Ant. Today Christ is born for us; glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom will I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life; from whom will I tremble?
While the wicked approach me to eat my flesh: those who trouble me, my enemies, they themselves have been weakened and have fallen.
If armies stand against me, my heart will not fear. If battle rises up against me, in this I will hope.
One thing have I asked of the Lord, this will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
That I may see the delight of the Lord and may visit his temple.
For he has hidden me in his tabernacle in the day of evils; he has protected me in the hidden place of his tabernacle.
He has exalted me on a rock, and now he has lifted up my head above my enemies.
I have gone around and I have immolated in his tabernacle a sacrifice of jubilation; I will sing and play a psalm to the Lord.
Hear, O Lord, my voice with which I have cried out; have mercy on me and hear me.
My heart has said to you: "My face has sought you." Your face, O Lord, I will seek.
Do not turn your face away from me; do not decline in anger from your servant.
Be my helper; do not forsake me and do not despise me, O God my Savior.
For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord has taken me up.
O Lord, appoint me a law in your way and guide me along the right path, because of my enemies.
Do not hand me over to the souls of those who trouble me; for unjust witnesses have risen up against me, and iniquity has lied to itself.
I believe that I will see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord, act manfully, and let your heart be strengthened, and wait for the Lord.
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. Today Christ is born for us; glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.
Psalm 27Confidence in God
Ant. Today Christ is born for us; glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.
To you, O Lord, I will cry out; O my God, do not be silent before me. Lest you be silent before me, and I become like those who descend into the pit.
Hear, O Lord, the voice of my supplication, as I pray to you, as I lift up my hands toward your holy temple.
Do not draw me away together with sinners and with those who work iniquity; who speak peace with their neighbors, but evils are in their hearts.
Give them according to their works and according to the wickedness of their inventions.
According to the works of their hands, give to them; repay them what they deserve.
For they have not understood the works of the Lord and the works of his hands.
You will destroy them and will not build them up.
Blessed is the Lord, for he has heard the voice of my supplication.
The Lord is my helper and my protector; in him my heart has hoped, and I have been helped.
And my flesh has flourished again; and with my will I will confess to him.
The Lord is the strength of his people and the protector of the salvation of his Christ.
Save your people, O Lord, and bless your inheritance, and govern them and exalt them forever.
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. Today Christ is born for us; glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.
First Reading: Scripture
John 1:1-3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.
Second Reading: Patristic or Hagiographic
Why the Word Became Flesh
You must understand why it is that the Word of the Father, so great and so high, has been made manifest in bodily form. He has not assumed a body as proper to his own nature, far from it, for as the Word he is without body. But while remaining what he was and is, he received a servant's form to express it in bodily terms. This he did, and we may wonder at it, out of his great love for mankind, so that in him we might have means of knowing the invisible Father. For how were we to know him? How could the mind of man get beyond the visible world? The Word, the Master, took a servant's form. For since human minds had fallen quite away from the mental contemplation of God, and, by reason of the similarity of their nature with the body, were regarding only the things of the sense, the Savior of us all, the Word of God, in his great love took to himself a body and moved as Man among men, meeting their senses, so to speak, halfway. He wanted to teach them, through his works in the body, to know him as the Father's Word, and through him to know the Father.
Responsory
V. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
R. and we have seen his glory.
V. Full of grace and truth,
R. we have seen his glory.
Concluding Prayer
God of glory, your word became flesh. May this reading of the church's prayer deepen our wonder at the gift of the incarnation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Dismissal
Let us praise the Lord.
And give him thanks.