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Wednesday, December 31 |
| The Morning Office To Be Observed on the Hour or Half Hour Between 6 and 9 a.m. |
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The Commemoration of the Holy Innocents |
The Call to Prayer |
| Come, let us sing to the LORD;* let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation. |
| Psalm 95:1 |
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The Request for Presence |
| Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down;* touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. |
| Psalm 144:5 |
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The Greeting |
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| My lips will sing with joy when I play to you,* and so will my soul, which you have redeemed. |
| Psalm 71:23 |
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The Refrain for the Morning Lessons |
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| Remember, LORD, how short life is,* how frail you have made all flesh. |
| Psalm 89:47 |
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A Reading |
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On December 28, the Church remembers with sorrow the slaughter of the male infants of Bethlehem. They were indeed the first victims of the persecution of Christians. |
| After they had left, suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.’ So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: I called my son out of Egypt. Herod was furious on realizing that he had been fooled by the wise men, and in Bethlehem and its surrounding district he had all the male children killed who were two years old or less, reckoning by the date he had been careful to ask the wise men. Then were fulfilled the words spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: Avoice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more. |
| Matthew 2:13–18 |
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The Refrain |
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| Remember, LORD, how short life is,* how frail you have made all flesh. |
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The Morning Psalm |
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Show Your Splendor to Our Children |
| Return, O LORD; how long will you tarry?* be gracious to your servants. Satisfy us by your loving-kindness in the morning;* so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life. Make us glad by the measure of the days that you afflicted us* and the years in which we suffered adversity. Show your servants your works* and your splendor to their children. May the graciousness of the LORD our God be upon us;* prosper the work of our hands; prosper our handiwork. |
| Psalm 90:13–17 |
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The Refrain |
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| Remember, LORD, how short life is,* how frail you have made all flesh. |
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The Gloria |
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| Glory be to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, so it is now and so it shall ever be, world without end. Alleluia.* Amen. |
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The Lord's Prayer |
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| Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your Name. May your kingdom come, and your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for yours are the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. |
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The Prayer Appointed for the Week |
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| Almighty God, you have given your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and to be born of a pure virgin: Grant that I, who have been born again and made your child by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit; through my Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with you and the same Spirit be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.† |
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Concluding Prayers of the Church |
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| We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod. Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought me in safety to this new day: Preserve me with your mighty power, that I may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all I do direct me to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.† |
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