Third Sunday in Advent: Liturgy of the Hours

Evening Prayer I


The traditional Advent Vesper Office Hymn is "Conditor alme siderum." An English version of it is recorded on track 4, "Music for Advent," Creator of the Stars of Night. (www.litpress.org)

The psalms from Sunday EP I, Week Three of the Four-Week Psalter are used. The antiphons are proper to this service:

(1) Rejoice, Jerusalem, let your joy overflow;
your Savior will come to you, alleluia.
(2) I, the Lord, am coming to save you; already I am near;
soon I will free you from your sins.
(3) Lord, send the Lamb, the ruler of hte earth,
from the rock in the desert to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.

[N.B. All the antiphons given here and throughout the Advent season have been set to their traditional Gregorian melodies by J. Michael Thompson. You can obtain a copy (snail-mail only) from chantermt@yahoo.com]

The Reading (I Thess. 5: 19-24) is read each Saturday at Evening Payer.

The Responsory is the one sung on all Saturday evenings in this season.

The antiphons on the Magnificat and Benedictus have been changed in the "Editio Typica Altera" of the Liturgy of the Hours (published 2000). The one now assigned to Year B is:

A man named John was sent from God;
he came for testimony, to testify to the Light.

The Intercessions and the Prayer are both proper to the Sunday.

Morning Prayer

Unless the Office of Readings has already been celebrated, Morning Prayer begins with the Invitatory, which is used until the Saturday after Advent II, inclusive:

Come, let us worship the Lord,
the King who is to come!

The traditional Advent Morning Office Hymn is Verbum Supernum prodiens, which is recorded in English on "Music for Advent" (www.litpress.org).

The psalms are from Sunday, Week Three of the four-week Psalter.
The antiphons are proper:

(1) The Lord is coming without delay.
He will reveal things kept hidden,
and show himself to all mankind, alleluia.
(2) Mountains ans hills shall be level,
crooked paths straight, rough ways smooth.
Come, Lord, do not delay, alleluia.
(3) I shall enfold Zion with My salvation
and shed my glory around Jerusalem, alleluia.

The Reading (Rom. 13: 11-14) is read each Advent Sunday at MP.

The Responsory is the one sung each Advent Sunday at MP.

The Benedictus antiphon (for Year B) is:

John said: I am the voice of one crying in the desert,
make straight the way of the Lord.

The Intercessions and the Prayer are both proper to the Sunday.

Evening Prayer II

The traditional Advent Vesper Office Hymn is "Conditor alme siderum." An English version of it is recorded on track 4, "Music for Advent," Creator of the Stars of Night. (www.litpress.org)

The psalms from Sunday EP II, Week 3 of the Four-Week Psalter are used. The antiphons are proper to this service:

(1) Our Lord will come to claim his glorious throne
in the assembly of the princes.
(2) Let the mountains break out with joy
and the hills with answering gladness,
for the world's ture light, the Lord, comes with power and might.
(3) Let us live in holiness and love
as we patiently await our blessed hope,
the coming of our Savior.

The Reading (Phil. 4: 4-7) is read each Sunday at Evening Payer.

The Responsory is the one sung on all Sunday evenings in this season.

The antiphons on the Magnificat and Benedictus have been changed in the "Editio Typica Altera" of the Liturgy of the Hours (published 2000). The one now assigned to Year B is:

I baptize with water, but there is one among you whom you do not recognize,
the One who is coming after me.

The Intercessions and the Prayer are both proper to the Sunday.