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Office of Readings

Monday, June 22, 2026 • Saint Paulinus of Nola, Bishop

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 and bow down before him.

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 and bow down before him.

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 67The Lord's Triumphal March

Ant. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.

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.

Ant. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.

Psalm 68Zeal for Your House Consumes Me (Part I)

Ant. Praise to you, Lord God, now and forever.

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.

Ant. Praise to you, Lord God, now and forever.

Psalm 68Zeal for Your House Consumes Me (Part II)

Ant. Praise to you, Lord God, now and forever.

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.

Ant. Praise to you, Lord God, now and forever.

First Reading: Scripture

Romans 10:13-15

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?

Second Reading: Patristic or Hagiographic

Saint Francis de Sales

Introduction to the Devout Life, Book 2

On Mental Prayer

In your mental prayer, as I have said, use your understanding to stir up good affections in your will. Once those affections are awakened, rest in them, and do not try to force yourself to further acts of understanding. For the aim of meditation is not to know more, but to love more. And love of God is nourished by resting in him with warmth and simplicity of heart, not by straining the intellect. After all, what does it profit us to know much about God if we do not love him? It is not the one who knows most who loves most; it is the one who fixes the eye of the heart most simply upon God. Therefore, whenever in the course of your meditation you feel moved to any particular good affection — towards God, or towards your neighbor, or towards some virtue — do not resist this movement, but give yourself to it gently. Do not hold back those holy desires and resolutions that God has given you; they are his gift and his work in you. Receive them with gratitude and act on them promptly.

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.

Concluding Prayer

Lord God, as we open your word, open our hearts to receive it. May these readings nourish our faith and deepen our love for you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Dismissal

Let us praise the Lord.
And give him thanks.