← Prayer Book
Office of Readings
Saturday, May 16, 2026 • Easter, Week 6 — Saturday
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 40Prayer in Sickness
Ant. This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it. Alleluia.
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. This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it. Alleluia.
Psalm 41Longing for God's House
Ant. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed; let us therefore celebrate the feast. Alleluia.
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. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed; let us therefore celebrate the feast. Alleluia.
Psalm 42Send Forth Your Light
Ant. Death is swallowed up in victory; thanks be to God who gives us the victory. Alleluia.
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. Death is swallowed up in victory; thanks be to God who gives us the victory. Alleluia.
First Reading: Scripture
Revelation 1:17-18
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever."
Second Reading: Patristic or Hagiographic
The Power of the Resurrection
The resurrection is truly a great thing, great and marvellous beyond description. Yet we see it take place around us every day. When does the night not die and the day rise? What is the night but the death of the day? And when does the day not rise from the night? The resurrection of the day from the night is a figure of the resurrection of the living from the dead. Watch the seed: it falls to the earth like a corpse; it is buried; the winter is its tomb. Then in spring it rises and puts on its garments. This teaches the mystery of the resurrection to those who have understanding. Watch the trees: they put off their leaves as the dead put off their bodies; then they are clothed again in spring with the garment of leaves. All of nature teaches us one lesson: what appears to die rises again. How much more then shall the human person, made in the image of God, who has Christ as the firstfruits of the resurrection, rise to new and immortal life at the last day!
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 Lord, as we read the words of the fathers of the church during this Easter season, may we be built up in faith, hope, and love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Dismissal
Let us praise the Lord.
And give him thanks.