Morning Prayer - Friday, March 6, 2026
Friday of the 2nd Week of Lent (Psalter: Week II)
Invitatory
Lord, open thou my lips.
— And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
Antiphon: Christ the Lord was tempted and suffered for us: come, let us adore him.
Psalm 66 (67) — Douay-Rheims
May God have mercy on us, and bless us: may he cause the light of his countenance to shine upon us, and may he have mercy on us.
That we may know thy way upon earth: thy salvation in all nations.
Let people confess to thee, O God: let all people give praise to thee.
Let the nations be glad and rejoice: for thou judgest the people with justice, and directest the nations upon earth.
Let the people, O God, confess to thee: let all the people give praise to thee:
The earth hath yielded her fruit. May God, our God bless us,
May God bless us: and all the ends of the earth fear him.
Glory be…
(Repeat Antiphon.)
Hymn (Public Domain — Week II of the hymn cycle)
Creator of the earth and skies,
To whom the words of life belong,
Grant us thy truth to make us wise;
Grant us thy power to make us strong…
Psalmody
Psalm 50 (51) — Miserere (Douay-Rheims)
Antiphon: O God, thou wilt not despise a humbled, contrite heart.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy.
And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity.
Wash me yet more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me.
To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee…
A contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Glory be…
(Repeat Antiphon.)
Canticle — Habacuc (Habakkuk) 3 (Douay-Rheims)
Antiphon: In thy wrath remember mercy, O Lord.
O Lord, I have heard thy hearing, and was afraid.
O Lord, thy work, in the midst of the years bring it to life:
In the midst of the years thou shalt make it known: when thou art angry, thou wilt remember mercy.
God will come from the south, and the holy one from mount Pharan…
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will joy in God my Jesus.
The Lord God is my strength…
Glory be…
(Repeat Antiphon.)
Psalm 147 (147B) — (Douay-Rheims)
Antiphon: Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem: praise thy God, O Sion.
Because he hath strengthened the bolts of thy gates, he hath blessed thy children within thee.
Who hath placed peace in thy borders: and filleth thee with the fat of corn.
Who sendeth forth his speech to the earth: his word runneth swiftly…
Glory be…
(Repeat Antiphon.)
Short Reading — Isaias (Isaiah) 53:11–12 (Douay-Rheims)
Because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be filled: by his knowledge shall this my just servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong… and he hath borne the sins of many, and hath prayed for the transgressors.
Short Responsory
He shall deliver me from the snare of the hunters.
— He shall deliver me from the snare of the hunters.
And from the sharp word.
— He shall deliver me from the snare of the hunters.
Glory be…
— He shall deliver me from the snare of the hunters.
Canticle of Zachary — Benedictus (Luke 1:68–79, Douay-Rheims)
Antiphon: He will bring those bad men to a bad end, and hand the vineyard over to other tenants, who will give him the fruits in due season.
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people:
And hath raised up an horn of salvation to us, in the house of David his servant…
To give knowledge of salvation to his people, unto the remission of their sins:
Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high hath visited us…
To direct our feet into the way of peace.
Glory be…
(Repeat Antiphon.)
Intercessions
Let us pray earnestly to Christ our Saviour, who redeemed us by his Cross and Resurrection:
— Lord, have mercy on us.
Thou didst go up to Jerusalem to suffer, and to enter into glory:
— Lead thy Church into the Paschal feast of everlasting life.Thy Heart was pierced:
— Heal the wounds of our human weakness.Thou hast made thy Cross the tree of life:
— Share thy victory with all the baptized.Thou didst give salvation to the repentant thief:
— Pardon all our sins.
Our Father
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…
Concluding Prayer
Cleanse us, Almighty God, by our whole-hearted labour of renewal,
that we may approach the coming feast with singleness of devotion.
Through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
May the Lord bless us, and keep us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.
Paradox of the Day
The only way to be made clean is to stop defending the stain.
G.K. Chesterton Quote of the Day
“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”
A Chestertonian Reflection
There is a peculiar modern ambition to be forgiven without being found guilty. We desire the warm, woolly blanket of mercy, but we insist it must be delivered by a God who never speaks the terrible, liberating word: sin.
Yet the Church, being kindly, begins where all kindness must begin—by telling the truth. The psalmist does not offer God a clever explanation, nor a well-lit résumé, nor a respectable excuse. He offers what our age finds intolerable: a broken spirit. And that is precisely why it works. A cracked vessel is the only one that can be filled; a sealed jar keeps even grace outside.
Isaiah’s Servant bears the weight that we keep trying to distribute into polite fragments. The world says, “Share the blame so nobody has to carry it.” The Gospel says, “Let the Innocent carry it—so the guilty can finally put it down.”
And here is the paradox worthy of Lent: when a man stops arguing for himself, he begins to live. When he quits polishing the mirror, he can see the sunrise. Gratitude—real gratitude—does not come from self-congratulation. It comes from rescue.
So today, do the simplest and bravest thing: name the wound, ask for the washing, and then thank God as though you meant it—because you have been spared not by your cleverness, but by His mercy.
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