← Prayer Book
Office of Readings
Saturday, January 10, 2026 • Christmas Season — January 10
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 40Prayer in Sickness
Ant. Today Christ is born for us; glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.
Blessed is he who considers the poor and the needy; the Lord will rescue him in an evil day.
May the Lord preserve him and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and may he not deliver him to the will of his enemies.
May the Lord bring him help on the bed of his sorrow; you have turned all his couch in his infirmity.
I said: "O Lord, have mercy on me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you."
My enemies have spoken evil against me: "When will he die and his name perish?"
And if he entered to see me, he spoke with vanity; his heart gathered together iniquity to itself.
He went out and spoke in the same way.
All my enemies whispered against me; they devised evils for me.
They have imposed on me a wicked word: "When he sleeps, will he rise no more?"
For even the man of my peace, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has greatly supplanted me.
But you, O Lord, have mercy on me and raise me up, and I will repay them.
By this I know that you have willed me: because my enemy will not rejoice over me.
But as for me, you have upheld me through my innocence, and you have confirmed me in your sight forever.
Blessed is the Lord, the God of Israel, from eternity to eternity. So be it. So be it.
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 41Longing for God's House
Ant. Today Christ is born for us; glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.
As the deer longs for fountains of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul has thirsted for God, the living fountain; when will I come and appear before the face of God?
My tears have been my bread day and night, while they say to me daily, "Where is your God?"
These things I remembered, and I poured out my soul in me; for I will pass into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God,
amid the voice of joy and praise, the sound of one feasting.
Why are you sad, O my soul? And why do you trouble me?
Hope in God, for I will still confess to him: the salvation of my countenance and my God.
My soul has been troubled within myself; therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan and Hermon, from the little hill.
Deep calls to deep at the sound of your floodgates.
All your heights and your waves have passed over me.
In the daytime the Lord has commanded his mercy, and in the night his canticle.
With me is a prayer to the God of my life.
I will say to God: "You are my supporter. Why have you forgotten me? And why do I go about in sadness, while the enemy afflicts me?"
While my bones are being broken, my enemies who trouble me have reproached me.
While they say to me daily: "Where is your God?"
Why are you sad, O my soul? And why do you trouble me?
Hope in God, for I will still give praise to him: the salvation of my countenance and my God.
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 42Send Forth Your Light
Ant. Today Christ is born for us; glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.
Judge me, O God, and separate my cause from the nation that is not holy; deliver me from the unjust and deceitful man.
For you are my strength, O God; why have you rejected me? And why do I go about in sadness, while the enemy afflicts me?
Send forth your light and your truth; they have led me and brought me to your holy mountain and into your tabernacles.
And I will go to the altar of God, to God who gladdens my youth.
I will praise you on the harp, O God, my God.
Why are you sad, O my soul? And why do you trouble me?
Hope in God, for I will still give praise to him: the salvation of my countenance and my God.
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
Colossians 2:9
For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.
Second Reading: Patristic or Hagiographic
Recapitulation in Christ
This is why the Lord came in these last days to redeem us: to take on our condition and be born as a man of a woman. By this means he recapitulated in himself the long history of the human race, obtaining salvation for us in this very condition, so that what we lost in Adam, namely, our being according to God's image and likeness, we might recover in Christ Jesus. For it was not possible for Adam, once conquered and shattered by disobedience, to reform himself and obtain the prize of victory. Likewise, it was not possible for us to obtain salvation except through the victory of Christ. Therefore the Son of God, our Lord and God, being the Word of the Father and the Son of man, having become what we are, has made us what he is himself. He became the Son of Man to the end that man also might become the Son of God. The perfect goodness of God the Father consists in this: that our adoption as his children is real and true, that we who were alienated have truly been brought back.
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 the incarnation, may the words we read and pray today enkindle in us a greater love for the one who was born for our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Dismissal
Let us praise the Lord.
And give him thanks.