← Prayer Book
Office of Readings
Monday, April 27, 2026 • Easter, Week 4 — Monday
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. Alleluia! The Lord is risen. Come, let us adore him. Alleluia!
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. Alleluia! The Lord is risen. Come, let us adore him. Alleluia!
Hymn
The Day of Resurrection
The day of resurrection!
Earth, tell it out abroad;
the Passover of gladness,
the Passover of God.
Earth, tell it out abroad;
the Passover of gladness,
the Passover of God.
Psalmody
Psalm 67The Lord's Triumphal March
Ant. This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it. Alleluia.
Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered, and let those who hate him flee from before his face.
As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish away; as wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish before the face of God.
And let the just feast and rejoice in the sight of God, and be pleased with gladness.
Sing to God, sing a psalm to his name; make a road for him who ascends over the west.
Lord is his name; rejoice in his sight; they will be troubled before his face,
the father of orphans and the judge of widows.
God is in his holy place; God who makes the solitary to dwell in a house,
who leads forth the prisoners to strength; likewise those who provoke, who dwell in sepulchres.
O God, when you went forth in the sight of your people, when you crossed through the desert,
the earth was moved, and the heavens dropped dew before the face of the God of Sinai, before the face of the God of Israel.
You will set apart a voluntary rain, O God, for your inheritance; and it has been weakened, but you have restored it.
Your animals will dwell in it; in your sweetness, O God, you have provided for the poor.
The Lord will give a word to those who proclaim the Gospel with great power.
The King of Hosts is the beloved one, and the beauty of the house will divide the spoils.
If you sleep among the midst of lots, you will be like the wings of a dove covered with silver and the feathers of her back with a pale gold.
When the Heavenly One discerns kings upon it, they will be made white as snow in Zalmon.
The mountain of God is a fat mountain; a curdled mountain, a fat mountain.
Why do you suspect, you curdled mountains, that God has chosen to dwell on this mountain?
For the Lord will dwell even to the end; the chariot of God is accompanied by ten thousands; thousands of those who rejoice.
The Lord is among them in Sinai, in the holy place.
You have ascended on high; you have taken captivity captive; you have received gifts among men.
Yes, for those who do not believe, the Lord God will dwell there.
Blessed is the Lord day by day; the God of our salvation will prosper our way.
Our God is the God of salvation, and the ways of death belong to the Lord God.
Yet God will crush the heads of his enemies, the hairy crown of those who walk on in their offenses.
The Lord said: "I will convert from Bashan; I will convert into the depth of the sea."
"So that your foot may be dipped in blood: the tongue of your dogs with enemies from yourself."
They have seen your proceedings, O God, the proceedings of my God, my king, who is in the holy place.
The leaders joined in song with the singers, in the midst of the young women playing timbrels.
In the churches, bless God the Lord from the fountains of Israel.
There is Benjamin, a youth, in ecstasy of mind; the leaders of Judah, their commanders; the leaders of Zabulon, the leaders of Naphtali.
Command your strength, O God; confirm this, O God, what you have worked in us.
From your temple in Jerusalem, kings will offer gifts to you.
Rebuke the wild beasts of the reeds, the congregation of bulls with the cows of the peoples, so that they may not exclude those who have been proven like silver.
Scatter the nations that desire wars.
Ambassadors will arrive out of Egypt; Ethiopia will hasten her hands to God.
Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth; sing psalms to the Lord.
Sing to God, who ascends above the heaven of heavens, to the east.
Behold, he will give his voice a voice of power.
Give glory to God above Israel; his magnificence and his power in the clouds.
God is wonderful in his holy ones; the God of Israel himself will give power and strength to his people. Blessed be 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. This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it. Alleluia.
Psalm 68Zeal for Your House Consumes Me (Part I)
Ant. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed; let us therefore celebrate the feast. Alleluia.
Save me, O God, for the waters have entered even to my soul.
I am stuck in the mud of the deep, and there is no firm place.
I have arrived in the depth of the sea, and a storm has overwhelmed me.
I have labored in crying out; my jaws have become hoarse; my eyes have failed, while I hope in my God.
Those who hate me without cause have been multiplied above the hairs of my head.
My enemies have been strengthened, who persecute me wrongly; then I repaid what I had not taken away.
O God, you know my foolishness, and my offenses have not been hidden from you.
Let not those who wait for you be confounded because of me, O Lord, the Lord of hosts.
Let not those who seek you be confounded because of me, O God of Israel.
For it is for your sake that I have endured reproach; confusion has covered my face.
I have become a stranger to my brothers and a foreigner to the sons of my mother.
For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen upon me.
And I covered my soul with fasting, and it became a reproach to me.
And I set sackcloth as my garment, and I became a byword to them.
Those who sit in the gate were talking against me, and those who drink wine were singing about me.
But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord, in the time of good pleasure.
In the multitude of your mercy, hear me in the truth of your salvation.
Draw me away from the mire, so that I may not be stuck fast; rescue me from those who hate me and from the deep waters.
Let not the storm of water drown me, nor the deep swallow me up, nor the pit close its mouth over me.
Hear me, O Lord, for your mercy is kind; according to the multitude of your compassions, look upon 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.
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Ant. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed; let us therefore celebrate the feast. Alleluia.
Psalm 68Zeal for Your House Consumes Me (Part II)
Ant. Death is swallowed up in victory; thanks be to God who gives us the victory. Alleluia.
And do not turn away your face from your servant; because I am in tribulation, hear me quickly.
Attend to my soul and free it; rescue me because of my enemies.
You know my reproach, and my confusion, and my shame.
In your sight are all those who trouble me; my heart has expected reproach and misery.
And I waited for someone who would grieve together, and there was none; and for one who would console, and I found none.
And they gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
Let their table before them become a snare, and a retribution, and a scandal.
Let their eyes be darkened, so that they may not see; and bow down their back always.
Pour out your indignation upon them, and let the furor of your anger take hold of them.
Let their dwelling place be desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in their tabernacles.
For they have persecuted him whom you have struck, and over the grief of my wounds they have added more.
Add iniquity to their iniquity, and let them not enter into your justice.
Let them be wiped out from the book of the living, and let them not be written in with the just.
I am poor and sorrowful; your salvation, O God, has lifted me up.
I will praise the name of God with a canticle, and I will magnify him with praise.
And it will please God more than a new calf, with horns producing and hoofs.
Let the poor see and rejoice; seek God, and your soul will live.
For God has heard the poor, and has not despised his captives.
Let the heavens and earth praise him, the sea and everything that crawls in them.
For God will save Zion, and the cities of Judah will be built up, and they will dwell there and obtain it by inheritance.
And the seed of his servants will possess it, and those who love his name will dwell in 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. Death is swallowed up in victory; thanks be to God who gives us the victory. Alleluia.
First Reading: Scripture
1 Peter 1:3-4
By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.
Second Reading: Patristic or Hagiographic
Christ Our Passover
Understand, therefore, beloved, how it is new and old, eternal and temporary, perishable and imperishable, mortal and immortal, this mystery of the Pascha. It is old as regards the law, but new as regards the Word; temporary as regards the type, eternal because of the grace; perishable because of the slaughter of the sheep, imperishable because of the life of the Lord; mortal because of his burial in the earth, immortal because of his resurrection from the dead. The law is old, but the Word is new. The type is temporary, but the grace is eternal. The sheep is perishable, but the Lord is imperishable. He was led as a sheep; he was not a sheep. He was silent as a lamb; he was not a lamb. The type has passed away; the reality has come. The lamb gives place to God, and the sheep gives place to a man, and the man is Christ, who fills all things. This is he who delivered us from slavery to freedom, from darkness to light, from death to life, from tyranny to eternal royalty, and made us a new priesthood and a chosen people forever.
Responsory
V. This is the day that the Lord has made. Alleluia.
R. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Alleluia.
V. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
R. his love endures forever. Alleluia.
Concluding Prayer
O God of life, the church rejoices in the resurrection of your Son. May the scriptures and the words of the fathers we read today deepen our Easter faith and joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Dismissal
Let us praise the Lord.
And give him thanks.