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Office of Readings

Friday, June 12, 2026 • The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

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 the Lord on this great solemnity.

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. Come, let us adore the Lord on this great solemnity.

Hymn

O Splendor of God's Glory Bright

O Splendor of God's glory bright,
O thou that bringest light from light,
O Light of light, light's living spring,
O Day, all days illumining!

O thou true Sun, on us thy glance
let fall in royal radiance;
the Spirit's sanctifying beam
upon our earthly senses stream.

The Father, too, our prayers implore,
Father of glory evermore;
the Father of all grace and might,
to banish sin from our delight.

All laud to God the Father be;
all praise, eternal Son, to thee;
all glory, as is ever meet,
to God the holy Paraclete.

Psalmody

Psalm 37Prayer of a Repentant Sinner

Ant. Heal me, O Lord, for I have sinned against you.

O Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath, nor chastise me in your fury.

For your arrows have been fixed in me, and you have confirmed your hand upon me.

There is no health in my flesh before the face of your wrath; there is no peace for my bones before the face of my sins.

For my iniquities have gone over my head, and like a heavy burden they have been made heavy upon me.

My sores have putrefied and been corrupted before the face of my foolishness.

I have become miserable and I have been bowed down to the end; I have gone about in sorrow all day long.

For my loins have been filled with illusions, and there is no health in my flesh.

I have been afflicted and humbled greatly; I have cried out with the groaning of my heart.

O Lord, all my desire is before you, and my groaning has not been hidden from you.

My heart has been troubled, my strength has forsaken me, and even the light of my eyes itself has departed from me.

My friends and my neighbors have drawn near and have stood against me.

And those who were close to me have stood far off; and those who sought my soul used violence.

And those who sought evils for me spoke vanities and they meditated upon deceits all day long.

But I, like one who is deaf, did not hear, and like one who is dumb, not opening his mouth.

And I became like a man who does not hear and who has no reproofs in his mouth.

For in you, O Lord, I have hoped; you will hear me, O Lord my God.

For I said: "Lest at any time my enemies rejoice over me," and while my feet were moved, they spoke greatly against me.

For I am ready for scourges, and my sorrow is continually before me.

For I will declare my iniquity, and I will think about my sin.

But my enemies live and are stronger than me, and those who hate me unjustly have been multiplied.

Those who repay evil for good spoke detractingly, because I followed goodness.

Do not forsake me, O Lord my God; do not depart from me.

Attend to my help, O Lord, the God of my salvation.

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. Heal me, O Lord, for I have sinned against you.

Psalm 38The Transience of Life

Ant. O Lord, hear my prayer; listen to my cry; do not be deaf to my weeping.

I said: "I will keep my ways, so that I may not sin with my tongue."

I placed a guard on my mouth, when the sinner stood before me.

I was muted and humbled, and kept silence from good things, and my sorrow was renewed.

My heart became hot within me, and in my meditation fire will blaze up.

I spoke with my tongue: "O Lord, make my end known to me, and what is the number of my days, so that I may know what remains for me."

Behold, you have made my days measurable, and my substance is as nothing before you.

Truly, all vanity: every man living.

Truly, man passes by like an image; and he is in turmoil without purpose.

He stores up and does not know for whom he will gather it.

And now, what is my expectation? Is it not the Lord? And my substance is with you.

Rescue me from all my iniquities; you have made me a reproach for the fool.

I was made dumb and did not open my mouth, because you have acted.

Remove your scourges from me.

For I have failed at the strength of your hand; you have corrected man for iniquity.

And you have made his soul waste away like a spider; truly, all vanity: every man.

Hear my prayer, O Lord, and my supplication; give ear to my tears.

Do not be silent, because I am a newcomer before you and a pilgrim, as all my fathers were.

Forgive me, so that I may be refreshed before I depart and exist no more.

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. O Lord, hear my prayer; listen to my cry; do not be deaf to my weeping.

Psalm 39Patient Waiting on God

Ant. I waited, waited for the Lord; he stooped toward me and heard my cry.

I waited patiently for the Lord, and he was attentive to me.

And he heard my prayers and he drew me out of the pit of misery and from the muddy mire.

And he set my feet upon a rock and directed my steps.

And he put a new canticle into my mouth, a song to our God.

Many will see and will fear, and they will hope in the Lord.

Blessed is the man whose hope is the name of the Lord, and who has not looked upon vanities and lying follies.

You have done great things, O Lord my God; your wondrous works, and your thoughts: there is no one like you.

I declared and I spoke; they were multiplied beyond number.

Sacrifice and oblation you did not desire; but you have perfected ears for me.

Burnt offering and sin offering you did not require; then I said, "Behold, I come."

In the heading of the book it is written of me that I should do your will; O my God, I have desired it, and your law in the midst of my heart.

I have declared your justice in the great church; behold, I will not restrain my lips: O Lord, you know it.

I have not hidden your justice within my heart; I have declared your truth and your salvation.

I have not hidden your mercy and your truth from the great council.

But you, O Lord, do not remove your compassion from me; your mercy and your truth have always upheld me.

For evils without number have surrounded me; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I was not able to see.

They have been multiplied above the hairs of my head, and my heart has forsaken me.

Be pleased, O Lord, to rescue me; look down, O Lord, to help me.

Let them be ashamed and fear all at once who seek my soul to take it away.

Let them be turned backward and be ashamed who desire evils for me.

Let them bear their shame all at once who say to me: "Well done, well done."

Let all who seek you exult and rejoice in you; and let those who love your salvation say always: "The Lord be magnified."

But I am needy and poor; the Lord is concerned for me.

You are my helper and my deliverer; O my God, do not delay.

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. I waited, waited for the Lord; he stooped toward me and heard my cry.

First Reading: Scripture

Isaiah 55:10-11

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty.

Second Reading: Patristic or Hagiographic

Saint Albert the Great

On Union with God

The Contemplation of God in Creation

The contemplation of creatures leads to knowledge of the Creator. For the invisible things of God are known through the things that are made. When the soul, recollected in itself, surveys creation with intelligence and understanding, it rises, step by step, to the knowledge and love of the Creator. The beauty of visible things — of sky and earth, of light and color, of form and movement — points beyond itself to the one who made it beautiful. The order of the universe — the movements of the stars, the cycles of nature, the harmony of creation — points to the one who established that order. The goodness of creatures — the goodness of food and friendship, of music and art, of love and truth — points to the one who is Goodness itself. Therefore let the Christian soul be attentive to the world around it, not with the grasping attention of one who wants to possess it, but with the grateful attention of one who sees through it to God. Let creation be for you a school of contemplation, an occasion for wonder, and a staircase leading upward to the one who made all things good.

Responsory

V. Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on us.

R. Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on us.

V. You who rose from the dead,

R. have mercy on us.

Te Deum (Sundays and Solemnities)

Concluding Prayer

God of all wisdom, as we pray the Office of Readings, grant us understanding that goes beyond mere knowledge, and faith that acts on what it believes; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Dismissal

Let us praise the Lord.
And give him thanks.