Agnus Dei: Lent Daybook 3
Look: The Shepherd of Sandtown, Stephen Towns - Source | HT
Listen*: Agnus Dei, Samuel Barber, Voces8 - Latin text w/ English translation | Spotify | YouTube
Read**: Psalm 95, 31; Psalm 35; Deuteronomy 7:12-16; Titus 2:1-15; John 1:35-42
Excerpts:
“Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind!”
*
“I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you.
Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, and let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause. For they do not speak peace, but against those who are quiet in the land they devise words of deceit. They open wide their mouths against me; they say, ‘Aha, Aha! Our eyes have seen it!’
You have seen, O Lord; be not silent! O Lord, be not far from me! Awake and rouse yourself for my vindication, for my cause, my God and my Lord! Vindicate me, O Lord, my God, according to your righteousness, and let them not rejoice over me! Let them not say in their hearts, ‘Aha, our heart's desire!’ Let them not say, ‘We have swallowed him up.’
Let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether who rejoice at my calamity! Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me!
Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, ‘Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant!’ Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long.”
*
“And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. He will love you, bless you, and multiply you.”
*
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.”
*
“The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God!’ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, ‘What are you seeking?’ And they said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ He said to them, ‘Come and you will see.’ So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas’ (which means Peter).”
- Psalm 31:19 * Psalm 35:18-28 * Deuteronomy 7:12-13a * TItus 2:11-15 * John 1:35-42 (ESV)
Pray: On Fridays during Lent, we will pray the traditionally-read prayers of the daily office that draw us into Psalm 95, known in Latin as the Invitatory and the Venite. If you’re reading this prayer with another person, one of you can lead with the first phrase and the other response with the bolded words, then reading the last portion (Psalm 95:1-11) together.
O Lord, open our lips; And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.
O God, make speed to save us; O Lord, make haste to help us.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Praise the Lord. The Lord’s Name be praised.
The mercy of the Lord is everlasting: O come, let us adore him.
O come, let us sing unto the Lord; let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and show ourselves glad in him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. In his hand are all the depths of the earth, and the heights of the hills are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands prepared the dry land.
O come, let us worship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker. For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice: ‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, on that day at Massah in the wilderness, when your forebears tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my works. Forty years long I detested that generation and said, ‘This people are wayward in their hearts; they do not know my ways.’ So I swore in my wrath ‘They shall not enter into my rest.’ “
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was, in the beginning, is now and shall be forever. Amen.
Do: Fast from one kind of food, one meal, or one whole day of eating today. Let your hunger prompt simple dependence and prayer, paying special attention to areas of numbness, disconnect, or denial that need God’s healing attention.
Traditionally, the Church sets aside Lenten Fridays, the weekday of Jesus’ crucifixion, to abstain from eating meat or to a partial (one meal) or whole fast (24 hours without solid food). You can read more about this tradition and its spiritual implications here, here, or here.
