Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 95[a]
A Call To Praise and Obey God
1 [b]Come, let us sing with jubilation to the Lord;
let us cry out to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with our songs.
3 [c]For the Lord is the great God,
the King who surpasses all other gods.[d]
4 In his hands are the depths of the earth,
and the peaks of the mountains are his.
5 To him belongs the sea, for he created it,
and also the dry land[e] that his hands have molded.
6 Come forth! Let us bow down to worship him;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.[f]
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds,[g]
the flock he protects.
If only you would listen to his voice today:
8 “Harden not your hearts as you did at Meribah,[h]
as on the day of Massah in the wilderness.
9 It was there that your ancestors sought to tempt me;
they put me to the test
even though they had witnessed my works.[i]
10 “For forty years[j] I loathed that generation;
I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they do not know my ways.’
11 Therefore, in my anger I swore,
‘They will never enter my rest.’ ”[k]
Psalm 22[a]
Suffering and Triumph of the Messiah
1 For the director.[b] According to “The Deer of the Dawn.” A psalm of David.
2 [c]My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why have you paid no heed to my call for help,
to my cries of anguish?
3 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I am afforded no relief.[d]
4 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the praise of Israel.
5 Our ancestors placed their trust in you;
they trusted, and you gave them deliverance.
6 They cried out to you and were saved,
they trusted in you and were not put to shame.
7 But I am a worm and not human,[e]
scorned by people and despised by my kinsmen.
8 All who see me jeer at me;
they sneer in mockery and toss their heads:[f]
9 “He relied on the Lord;
let the Lord set him free.
Let the Lord deliver him,
if he loves him.”[g]
10 [h]Yet you brought me out of the womb
and made me feel secure
upon my mother’s breast.
11 I was entrusted to your care at my birth;
from my mother’s womb, you have been my God.
12 Do not remain aloof from me,
for trouble is near
and no one can help me.
13 [i]Many bulls[j] are encircling me;
fierce bulls of Bashan are closing in on me.
14 They open wide their mouths against me
like ravening and roaring lions.
15 My strength is trickling away like water,
and all my bones are dislocated.
My heart[k] has turned to wax
and melts within me.
16 My mouth is as dry as clayware,
and my tongue sticks to my jaw;[l]
you have laid me down in the dust of death.
17 A pack of dogs surrounds me;
a band of evildoers is closing in on me.
They have pierced my hands and my feet;[m]
18 I can count all my bones.[n]
They stare at me and gloat;
19 they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.[o]
20 [p]But you, O Lord, do not remain aloof from me.
O my Strength, come quickly to my aid.
21 Deliver my soul from the sword,
my precious life from the grasp of the dogs.
22 Save me[q] from the lion’s mouth
and from the horns of wild oxen.
23 [r]I will proclaim your name to my family;
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you:[s]
24 “You who fear the Lord, praise him.
All you descendants of Jacob,[t] give him glory.
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel.
25 For he has not scorned or disregarded
the wretched man in his suffering;
he has not hidden his face[u] from him
but has heeded his call for help.”
26 I will offer my praise to you in the great assembly;
in the presence of those who fear him, I will fulfill my vows.[v]
27 [w]The poor[x] will eat and be filled;
those who seek the Lord will praise him:
“May your hearts live forever.”
28 All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the Lord.
All the families of the nations
will bow low before him.
29 For kingly power belongs to the Lord;
he is the ruler of all the nations.
30 All those who prosper on the earth will bow down before him;
all those who lie in the grave will kneel in homage.
31 [y]But I will live for the Lord,
and my descendants will serve him.
32 Future generations will be told about the Lord
so that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn
the deliverance he has accomplished.
Psalm 40[a]
Thanksgiving and Prayer for Help
1 For the director.[b] A psalm of David.
2 [c]I waited patiently for the Lord;
then he stooped down and heard my cry.
3 He raised me up from the desolate pit,
out of the mire of the swamp;
he set my feet upon a rock,
giving me a firm footing.
4 He put a new song[d] in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will look on and be awestruck,
and they will place their trust in the Lord.
5 Blessed[e] is the man
who places his trust in the Lord,
who does not follow the arrogant
or those who go astray after falsehoods.
6 How innumerable, O Lord, my God,
are the wonders you have worked;
no one can compare with you
in the plans you have made for us.
I would proclaim them and recount them,
but there are far too many to enumerate.
7 [f]Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but you have made my ears receptive.[g]
Burnt offerings and sin offerings
you did not demand.
8 [h]Then I said, “Behold I come;
it is written of me in the scroll of the book.
9 To do your will, O God, is my delight;
your law is in my heart.”[i]
10 I have proclaimed your righteousness in the great assembly;
I did not seal my lips,
as you well know, O Lord.
11 I have not concealed your righteousness within the depths of my heart;
I have spoken of your faithfulness and salvation.
I have not concealed your kindness and your truth
in the great assembly.
12 O Lord, do not withhold your mercy from me;
may your kindness[j] and your truth keep me safe forever.
13 I am surrounded by evils without number;
my sins have so engulfed me that I cannot see.
They outnumber the hairs on my head,
and my heart sinks within me.[k]
14 [l]Be pleased, O Lord, to rescue me
O Lord, come quickly to my aid.
15 [m]May all those who seek to take my life
endure shame and confusion.
May all those who desire my ruin
be turned back and humiliated.
16 May those who cry out to me, “Aha, aha!”[n]
be overcome with shame and dismay.
17 But may all who seek you
rejoice in you and be jubilant.
May those who love your salvation
cry out forever, “The Lord be magnified.”
18 Even though I am poor and needy,[o]
the Lord keeps me in his thoughts.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O my God, do not delay.
Chapter 3
The Enduring Love of the Lord
1 [a]I am a man who has known affliction
under the rod of God’s wrath.
2 He has led me and forced me to walk
in darkness, not in the light.
3 Against me alone he has turned his hand
again and again, throughout the day.
4 He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away;
he has broken my bones.
5 He has besieged me and enveloped me
with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has forced me to dwell in darkness
like those long dead.
7 He has walled me in so that I cannot escape,
and he weighed me down with heavy chains.
8 Even when I cry out and plead for help,
he shuts out my prayer.
9 He has barred my way with blocks of stones
and obstructed my paths.
19 The realization of my poverty and homelessness
is wormwood and gall to me.
20 My soul continually reflects on this
and is left downcast within me.
21 However, I will call this to mind
as the reason for my hope:
22 [a]The love of the Lord is never exhausted,
nor do his deeds of mercy ever come to an end.
23 They are renewed every morning;
his faithfulness never ceases.
24 The Lord is my portion, I say to myself;
therefore, I will place my hope in him.
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul that seeks him.
26 It is good to wait in silence
for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man to bear
the yoke from his youth.
28 Let that man sit alone and in silence
when the yoke is laid upon him.
29 Let him bury his head in the dust;
there may still be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to those who strike him
and endure their insults.
31 For the rejection by the Lord
will not last forever.
32 Even though he punishes, he will be compassionate
in the abundance of his unfailing love.
33 For he does not willingly afflict
or cause grief to the children of men.
10 This salvation was the subject of intense scrutiny and investigation by the Prophets[a] who spoke about the grace that you were to receive. 11 They were searching out the time and the circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ[b] within them was pointing when it testified in advance to the sufferings that Christ would endure and the glories that would then follow.
12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you when they spoke of the things that have now been announced to you through those who proclaimed the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even the angels long to catch a glimpse of such things.
13 Convictions for Living.[c] Therefore, prepare your minds for action. Be calm and fix your hopes completely on the grace that you will be granted at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 Like obedient children, do not yield to the evil desires you had in your former ignorance. 15 He who called you is holy. Therefore, be holy yourselves in all your conduct. 16 For Scripture says, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
17 If you address as Father the one who judges everyone impartially on the basis of each person’s deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile here. 18 For you are aware that you were ransomed from your futile way of life inherited from your ancestors not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ,[d] a lamb without blemish or defect.
20 He was chosen before the foundation of the world, but in this final age he has been revealed for your sake.
36 Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial.[a] Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered,
“Where I am going,
you cannot follow me now,
but you will follow me later on.”
37 Peter said, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” 38 Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Amen, amen, I say to you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.
38 Jesus Is Buried.[a] Shortly thereafter, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate for permission to remove the body of Jesus. Pilate granted him permission, and so he came and took his body away.
39 Nicodemus, who had first come to Jesus at night, also came, bringing with him a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about one hundred pounds.[b] 40 They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, in accordance with the burial custom of the Jews.
41 At the place where Jesus had been crucified there was a garden, and in that garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been buried. 42 And so, since it was the Jewish day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
Copyright © 2019 by Catholic Book Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.