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Office of Readings

Friday, May 22, 2026 • Saint Rita of Cascia, Religious

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.

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.

Psalmody

Psalm 58Rescue from Enemies

Ant. This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it. Alleluia.

Rescue me from my enemies, O my God, and protect me from those who rise up against me.

Rescue me from those who work iniquity, and save me from men of blood.

For behold they have caught my soul; the strong have rushed in upon me.

Neither is it my iniquity nor my sin, O Lord; without iniquity I have run and directed.

Rise up to meet me and see; and you, Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel.

Attend so as to visit all the Gentiles; do not spare any who work iniquity.

They will return in the evening and they will suffer hunger like dogs and will circle the city.

Behold, they will speak in their mouth, and a sword is on their lips.

"For who has heard us?"

But you, O Lord, will laugh at them; you will bring all the Gentiles to nothing.

I will keep my strength to you, for you, O God, are my support.

My God, his mercy will precede me.

God will let me see over my enemies; do not slay them, lest at some time my people forget.

Scatter them by your power and bring them down, O Lord, my shield.

The sin of their mouth, the word of their lips, and let them be caught in their pride.

And because of their cursing and lying, they will be proclaimed in consummation, in the wrath of consummation, and they will be no more.

And they will know that God will rule Jacob and all the ends of the earth.

They will return in the evening and will suffer hunger like dogs and will circle the city.

They will be dispersed to eat; but if they are not satisfied, they will murmur.

But I will sing your strength, and in the morning I will exult in your mercy.

For you have been my supporter and my refuge in the day of my tribulation.

You, my helper, I will sing to you; for you, O God, are my support, my God, my mercy.

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.

Ant. This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it. Alleluia.

Psalm 59Prayer After Defeat

Ant. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed; let us therefore celebrate the feast. Alleluia.

O God, you have rejected us and have destroyed us; you have been angry and you have shown mercy to us.

You have moved the earth and troubled it; heal its wounds, for it has been moved.

You have shown your people harsh things; you have given us wine of sorrow to drink.

You have given a sign to those who fear you, so that they may flee from before the bow, so that your beloved may be rescued.

Save with your right hand and hear me, so that those whom you love may be rescued.

God has spoken in his holy place; I will rejoice, and I will divide Shechem, and I will measure out the valley of tents.

Gilead is mine and Manasseh is mine; and Ephraim is the strength of my head.

Judah is my king; Moab, the pot of my hope.

Into Edom I will extend my shoe; the foreigners have been made subject to me.

Who will lead me into the reinforced city? Who will lead me even into Edom?

Will it not be you, O God, who have rejected us and will you not, O God, go out in our armies?

Give us help from tribulation; for the salvation of man is useless.

Through God we will be strengthened; and he will bring our enemies to nothing.

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.

Ant. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed; let us therefore celebrate the feast. Alleluia.

Psalm 60Confidence in God's Protection

Ant. Death is swallowed up in victory; thanks be to God who gives us the victory. Alleluia.

Hear, O God, my supplication; attend to my prayer.

I cried out to you from the ends of the earth, when my heart was in anguish; you have exalted me on a rock.

You have led me, for you have been my hope: a tower of strength against the face of the enemy.

I will dwell in your tabernacle forever; I will be covered under the cover of your wings.

For you, my God, have heard my prayer; you have given an inheritance to those who fear your name.

You will add days to the days of the king; his years will be even to the day of every generation.

He endures forever in the sight of God; who will seek the mercy and truth of him?

So I will sing a psalm to your name forever and ever, so that I may repay my vows from day to day.

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.

Ant. Death is swallowed up in victory; thanks be to God who gives us the victory. Alleluia.

First Reading: Scripture

1 John 4:9

God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.

Second Reading: Patristic or Hagiographic

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem

Mystagogical Catechesis 2

Baptism as Death and Resurrection

We were led to the holy pool of divine baptism, as Christ was carried from the cross to the sepulchre. And each of us was asked whether he believed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And we made that saving confession, and descended three times into the water, and ascended again: here also hinting by a symbol at the three-day burial of Christ. For as our Savior passed three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, so we also by our first emerging from the water represented the first day of Christ in the earth, and by our submersion the night; for as he who is in the night seeth no more, but he who is in the day remaineth in the light, so in the submersion, as in the night, we saw nothing, but in emerging we were as in the day. And at the self-same moment, ye died and were born; and that water of salvation was at once your grave and your mother. Remember: you are baptized into Christ's death; you have risen with him into new life.

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

God of the resurrection, your word is living and active. May it be at work in us today, raising us from all that is death to all that is life in Christ; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Dismissal

Let us praise the Lord.
And give him thanks.