Blessed Sacrament Book/First Part
Psalm Ninety-Four
The Invitatory of the Divine Office at Matins
The Morning Call to Prayer
The Breviary contains two different versions of this Psalm: first, the one which is read in the office of the Epiphany and which conforms to the Vulgate or Gallican can Psalter (second revision of St. Jerome); the second, which is our Invitatory, represents the older text of St. Jerome's first Version made by order of Pope Damasus. It had been used as a respbnsory to invite the monks from their cells at midnight or matin hour to the choir, and had served as Invitatory even before that time in the synagogues for the Sabbath service. The old form of this morning call to prayer retained its hold on the Roman clergy despite subsequent changes and corrections of the remaining parts.
Come, let us sing to the Lord; let us rejoice in God, our Saviour. Let us enter His presence with thanksgiving, and with psalms proclaim our joy.
For great is Our Lord, God; and a king He thrones above all who rule. For in His hand are all parts of the earth however remote, and He looks down upon the highest mountains.
For His is the sea, since He created it, and He fashioned the earth with His hands. Come, let us prostrate ourselves before God, and adore Him. Let us implore the Lord Who created us, for He is the Lord our God, and we are His people and the flock of His pasture.
O, that you would listen to His voice to-day! Do not harden your hearts as they did at Meribah on the day when they provoked Him in the desert. There (He says) your fathers tempted Me; yea and they saw the proof (of My power) and My works (miracles).
For forty years I bore up with this generation, until I said to myself: This is a people forever astray in their hearts; yet have they ignored My directions. Wherefore in My wrath have I solemnly determined that they shall not enter into My rest.
Metrical Translation of Psalm Ninety-Four
O come, let us the Lord our God
Exultingly adore;
And all, with jubilation, praise
Our Saviour evermore.
Let us make haste our homage due
Before His face to bring;
And let us, glad and jubilant,
Psalms to His glory sing;
Because the Lord is a great God
And King, all gods above; Because the Lord will not reject
The people of His love;
Because He in His mighty hand,
All ends of earth doth hold;
And doth from His high throne above,
All mountain heights behold;
Because the sea to Him belongs
As work of His own hand;
Because He made and 'stablished
The firm and solid land.
Come, let us fall before our God,
And prostrate Him adore;
And before Him Who made us all
Let us our sins deplore.
For He to us Our Lord and God
Is, and will ever be;
His chosen people, of His fold
And pasture sheep are we.
To-day if you shall hear His voice,
Oh, harden not your hearts,
As in the old provoking time
In Massah's desert parts;
Where in Meribah's wilderness
Your fathers tempted Me;
And sought to try Me, but did learn
What like My works should be.
Against that race I did endure
Full forty summers long
And thus I judged and said of them:
"Their hearts are always wrong."
They knew Me not, nor My high ways,
For they were dull and blind;
I swore in wrath: into My rest
They shall not entrance find!
Hymn to the Holy Trinity
To God, the Father and the Son
And Holy Spirit, three in one,
Be endless glory, as before
The world began, so evermore.
Our morning lauds to Thee we raise,
To Thee our evening songs of praise:
Oh, may it still our glory be
To hymn Thy name eternally.
While shines the morning-star, whose ray
Gives tidings of the newborn day,
And westward glides the mighty gloom,
Let Thy pure light our souls illume.
O God, Whose mercy passeth thought,
Whose power this world's vast fabric wrought;
One nature we adore in Thee.
And in one nature persons three.
These hours, my humble offering
To Thee, blest Trinity, I bring;
Oh, be Thou gracious unto me,
Lord, in my final agony;
And grant that we may all obtain
The glories of Thy heavenly reign.
— Aylward: Annus Sanctus.
O Light of light, with Thy blest ray
Direct our steps throughout this day,
We humbly Thee implore;
Praise we the Father, praise the Son,
And Holy Ghost, blest three in one,
Both now and evermore.
— Campbell: Annus Sanctus.
Prayer to the Most Holy Trinity
Omnipotence of the Father, help my weakness, and deliver me from the depth of misery.
Wisdom of the Son, direct all my thoughts, words, and actions.
Love of the Holy Ghost, be thou the source and beginning of all the operations of my soul, whereby they may be always conformable to the divine will.
Indulgence of 200 days, once a day. — Leo XIII, March 15, 1800.