← Prayer Book
Office of Readings
Sunday, March 8, 2026 • 3rd Sunday of Lent
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 Christ the Lord, who for our sake endured temptation and suffering.
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 Christ the Lord, who for our sake endured temptation and suffering.
Hymn
Again We Keep This Solemn Fast
Again we keep this solemn fast,
a gift of faith from ages past,
this Lent which binds us lovingly
to faith and hope and charity.
a gift of faith from ages past,
this Lent which binds us lovingly
to faith and hope and charity.
Psalmody
Psalm 43Lament of a Troubled People
Ant. In you, O Lord, have I trusted; let me never be confounded.
We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have declared to us the work that you did in their days and in the days of old.
Your hand destroyed the Gentiles and you planted them; you afflicted peoples and cast them out.
For they did not acquire the land by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them.
But your right hand and your arm and the light of your countenance, because you were pleased with them.
You yourself are my king and my God, who command the salvation of Jacob.
Through you we will push down our enemies with the horn, and through your name we will despise those who rise up against us.
For I will not trust in my bow, and my sword will not save me.
But you have saved us from those who afflict us, and you have put to shame those who hate us.
In God we will be praised all day long, and in your name we will confess forever.
But now you have rejected and despised us, and you will not go out, O God, in our armies.
You have turned us back behind our enemies, and those who hated us plundered for themselves.
You have given us up like sheep to be eaten, and among the Gentiles you have dispersed us.
You have sold your people for no price, and there was no multitude in exchange for them.
You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and a derision to those who are around us.
You have set us as a comparison among the Gentiles, a shaking of the head among the peoples.
All day long my shame is before me, and the confusion of my face has covered me,
at the voice of the one speaking ill and the detractor, at the face of the enemy and the pursuer.
All these things have come upon us, yet we have not forgotten you, and we have not acted unjustly in your covenant.
And our heart has not turned backward, and you have not turned aside our steps from your way.
For you have humbled us in the place of affliction, and the shadow of death has covered us.
If we have forgotten the name of our God, and if we have extended our hands to a strange god,
will God not investigate these things? For he knows the hidden things of the heart.
For because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are being considered as sheep for the slaughter.
Rise up; why do you sleep, O Lord? Arise, and do not reject us forever.
Why do you turn your face away and forget our poverty and our tribulation?
For our soul has been humbled in the dust; our belly has clung to the earth.
Rise up, O Lord, help us and redeem us for the sake of your name.
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. In you, O Lord, have I trusted; let me never be confounded.
Psalm 44A Royal Wedding Song
Ant. In you, O Lord, have I trusted; let me never be confounded.
My heart has uttered a good word; I speak my works to the king.
My tongue is the pen of a swiftly writing scribe.
You are made beautiful above the sons of men; grace is poured out in your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever.
Take up your sword upon your thigh, O most mighty.
Go forth with your beauty and your excellence and proceed with success, and reign, because of truth and meekness and justice.
And your right hand will guide you wonderfully.
Your arrows are sharp; peoples will fall under you; the hearts of the king's enemies.
Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; the rod of your kingdom is the rod of uprightness.
You have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.
Myrrh, aloes, and cassia perfume your garments, from the ivory houses, from which the daughters of kings have given you delight in your glory.
The queen stood at your right hand in golden attire, surrounded with variety.
Hear, O daughter, and see and incline your ear; and forget your people and your father's house.
And the king will desire your beauty; for he is the Lord your God, and him they will adore.
And the daughters of Tyre with gifts, yes the rich among the people, will entreat your face.
All the glory of the daughter of the king is within in golden borders,
Clothed around with varieties. After her, virgins will be brought to the king; her neighbors will be brought to you.
They will be brought with gladness and joy; they will be brought into the temple of the king.
Instead of your fathers, sons are born to you; you will make them princes over all the earth.
They will remember your name in every generation and generation; therefore peoples will confess to you forever and ever and into ages of ages.
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. In you, O Lord, have I trusted; let me never be confounded.
Psalm 45God Is Our Refuge and Strength
Ant. In you, O Lord, have I trusted; let me never be confounded.
God is our refuge and strength, a helper in the troubles that have found us greatly.
Therefore we will not fear when the earth will be troubled, and the mountains will be transferred into the heart of the sea.
Their waters roared and were troubled; the mountains were troubled by his strength.
The outflows of the river make the city of God joyful; the Most High has sanctified his tabernacle.
God is in its midst, it will not be moved; God will help it at the break of dawn.
The nations were troubled, and the kingdoms were bowed down; he gave forth his voice, the earth was moved.
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our support.
Come and see the works of the Lord, what wonders he has placed upon the earth,
making wars cease even to the ends of the earth.
He will destroy the bow and break the armor, and he will burn the shields in fire.
"Be empty and see that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations and exalted on the earth."
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our support.
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. In you, O Lord, have I trusted; let me never be confounded.
First Reading: Scripture
Lamentations 3:40-41
Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands to God in heaven.
Second Reading: Patristic or Hagiographic
The Continual Ascent to God
This is true perfection: not to avoid a wicked life because we fear punishment, like slaves; not to do good because we hope for rewards, as if cashing in on the virtuous life by some business-like and contractual arrangement. On the contrary, disregarding all those things for which we hope and which have been reserved by promise, we regard falling from God's friendship as the only thing dreadful and we consider becoming God's friend the only thing worthy of honor and desire. This is the perfection of life for which the soul strives — never to cease from ascending and never to discover any limit to the perfection of the journey. The ascent to God is always open before us. And so that man of God who turned his whole life into a road on which he traveled toward God, never thought that what he had achieved was perfection. He always stretched toward the things before him, always moving higher, always pressing on, never resting. His perfection consisted precisely in his never resting, always grasping what is ahead.
Responsory
V. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love.
R. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love.
V. According to the multitude of your tender mercies,
R. blot out my transgressions.
Concluding Prayer
Father, as we draw near to Holy Week, grant that our reading and prayer may prepare our minds and hearts to celebrate the mystery of our redemption; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Dismissal
Let us praise the Lord.
And give him thanks.