The Twelfth Kathisma

Antiphon One

Lend an ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and miserable! 2) Look after my soul, for I am your friend; save your servant, O my God, for I trust in you. 3) Pity me, O sovereign Lord, for I cry to you all day long! 4) Give joy to your servant, for to you, Lord, do I lift my soul! 5) Lord, you are forgiving and good, full of love for all who call on you. 6) Hear my prayer, O Lord; attend to the sound of my voice. 7) The day of my distress I call on you; if only you would answer me, O Lord!

8) Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord, nor can their works compare with yours. 9) If you act, all nations will come to adore you, O Lord, to glorify your name, 10) for you are great and you work wonders, O you who alone are God!

11) Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; teach my heart to revere your name. 12) With all my heart will I praise you, Lord my God! I will glorify your name, O eternal one! 13) For great is your mercy toward me, O most high! You have rescued my soul from the depths of the grave! 14) O God the proud rise up to attack me; ruthless men hunt down my soul! Never do they give any thought to you! 15) But you, O Lord, God of tenderness and mercy, slow to anger, full of love and faithfulness, 16) turn to me and pity me: Give triumph to your servant, to your faithful son, victory. 17) Show me proof of your favor, O good one, that my foes may see and be shamed. O, that you yourself would help and console me, O Lord!

The city he founded stands on the holy mountain, and the Lord cherishes her. 2) He prefers the gates of Sion to all Jacob's dwellings, 3) and he speaks of you in glowing terms, O city of God:

4) I count Babylon and Egypt among those who know me; Philistia and Tyre and Ethiopia -- they are all her children. 5) Sion will be called mother, for all are her children.

6) And it is he, the Lord most high, who assures each one a place; 7) in listing the peoples, he writes: These are her children, and all rejoice in having their home there.

O Lord, my God, my saviour! I call for help by day; by night I groan before you! 2) Let my prayer reach you; attend to my plea. 3) For I have had my fill of trouble, and my life is on the brink of the grave. 4) I count for no more than one of those who fall into the pit: helpless, finished, numbered with the dead, 5) with those who lie asleep in the grave, whom you no longer remember for they are of no concern to you anymore. 6) You have laid me in the depths of the tomb, in the darkest, deep abyss. 7) Your anger weighs heavily on me, and you bear down on me with the full weight of it. 8) You make my friends withdraw from me; because of you they find me loathesome.

9) I have been imprisoned; there is no escaping, and anguish dims my eyesight. 10) Still, all day long I call on you, Lord; I stretch out my hands to you in prayer. 11) Is it for the dead that you wait to work your miracles; those mere shadows, will they rise and praise you? 12) Are they about to boast of your love in the grave, of your saving help where life is no more? 13) How can they speak of your wonders in that world of darkness, of your justice where all is forgotten?

14) But I keep crying to you; at dawn my prayer comes before you. 15) Why do you push me aside; why do you turn your face away from me? 16) Misery and mortal suffering have been my lot since my youth; I have endured your terrors; I cower beneath your blows. 17) Your scorching wrath has swept over me, and your onslaughts have reduced me to silence. 18) All day long they overwhelm me like floodwaters; they engulf me completely. 19) Lover and friend you have taken from me; I am left with the company of darkness.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: Both now and forever, and unto ages of ages, amen.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia: Glory to you, O God.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia: Glory to you, O God.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia: Glory to you, O God.

Antiphon Two

I will sing of your unfailing love forever, O Lord; age after age I will tell out your faithfulness. 2) With my mouth I declare it openly: Your love created the heavens, O eternal one, but your faithfulness outlasts even these. 3) I made a covenant with my chosen one; I gave my word to David, my servant: 4) I will set up your line to last forever; I will confirm your throne to last longer than time itself.

5) In the heavens they praise this promise of yours, O Lord, this faithfulness of yours, where your holy ones gather. 6) Who can compare with you in the skies above, O Lord; who resembles the Lord among the sons of God; -- 7) a God too dreadful for the council of holy ones, too awesome and great for all those around him? 8) Lord God of power and might, who is like you? Mighty Lord, your faithfulness surrounds you like a cloak. 9) You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves surge, you calm them. 10) It was you who reduced Rahab to a corpse; with your mighty arm you routed your enemies. 11) Yours are the heavens and yours is the earth; you established the earth and all it holds. 12) You it was who created Zaphan and Amana; Tabor and Hermon rejoice in your presence. 13) Yours is a mighty arm, O warrior; your left hand triumphs and your right hand exults. 14) Justice and right are the foundation of your throne; love and truth herald your coming. 15) Happy the people who know your radiance; they walk in the light of your face, O Lord. 16) Day after day they rejoice in your presence; your generosity makes them wild with joy. 17) You are indeed our glorious triumph, and your good pleasure gave us victory. 18) Truly, God is our sovereign, the holy one of Israel, our king.

19) Once, long ago, you spoke in a vision; to one devoted to you, you said this: Rather than a warrior, I made a youth king; I exalted a young man above a hero. 20) I found my servant, David, and with my holy oil I anointed him. 21) My hand shall make him strong; my arm shall give him courage. 22) No enemy shall have his way with him, no vicious rival, overcome him. 23) I will hammer the enemies that confront him; I will strike down those who hate him. 24) My faithfulness and steadfast love shall stay with him, and in my name shall he find victory. 25) I will extend the might of his hand as far as the sea; the strength of his right hand to the Euphrates. 26) He shall cry out to me: You are my father, my God, my rock of deliverance! 27) For my part, I will make him my firstborn, the overlord of earthly kings. 28) I will maintain my favor toward him forever; and my covenant with him I shall never break. 29) I will put his sons on his throne; his throne shall last like heaven's days. 30) If his sons forsake my love, and refuse to walk as I decree, 31) if they violate my statutes and fail to do what I command them, 32) I will punish their rebellion with the rod, and scourge them for their sin. 33) But never will I withdraw my love from him or let my faithfulness prove false. 34) I will not break my covenant nor take back my word. 35) Once and for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. 36) His dynasty shall last forever; his throne shall last like the sun before me, 37) eternal like the moon, an enduring witness in the heavens.

38) But now you are angry; you have rejected your anointed, and your rage at him knows no bounds. 39) You have canceled the covenant you made with your servant; his crown you have completely dishonored. 40) You have broken down his defenses, reducing his fortifications to ruins. 41) Everyone who passes plunders him, and his neighbors have taken to scoffing at him. 42) You let his enemies get the upper hand over him; they rejoice at his fate. 43) In your wrath you turned his sword back on him instead of supporting it. 44) You have ruined his reputation among his troops and toppled his throne to the ground. 45) You cut short the days of his youth, cursing his young manhood with sterility.

46) How long, O Lord, will you hide your face? How long, O conqueror, will your rage blaze like fire? 47) Remember my sorrow and the shortness of life; did you make men for nothing? 48) Is there anyone alive who will not see death, who can save himself from the grasp of the world beneath? 49) Where are your earlier acts of love, O Lord, which you promised David in your faithfulness? 50) Remember, O sovereign Lord, the insults to your servant, 51) how I take to heart all the jeers of the nations; for your enemies abuse me, O Lord, insulting your anointed at every step!

Praise the Lord forever! Amen, amen!

Glory: Both now:
Alleluia:

Antiphon Three

Lord, you have been our refuge throughout the ages! 2) Before the mountains were born, before the earth or the world were brought forth, you are God, without beginning or end. 3) Do not turn men back into dust, saying: Go back, sons of Adam! 4) For a thousand years are but a day in your sight, like yesterday, come and gone, no more than a watch in the night. 5) You sweep them away like a dream in the night; they are like grass: 6) In the morning it springs up and flowers; by evening it withers and fades.

7) So your anger consumes us; your wrath terrifies us. 8) You lay bare our guilt in plain sight before you, our secrets, in the light of your face. 9) In view of your anger our days pass away; our years are no more than a sigh. 10) Our lives span seventy years, or eighty for those who are strong. 11) And most of these are emptiness and pain, for they go by quickly and we are gone. 12) Who can understand the power of your anger; who can understand your just and rightful indignation?

Make us know the shortness of our days, that we may reach some wisdom of heart. 13) Lord, relent! Must your anger last forever? Take pity on your servants. 14) Each morning fill us with your love, that we may jump for joy and gladness all our lives. 15) Give us joy; balance our affliction for the years we knew misfortune! 16) Show forth your work to your servants; let your glory shine on their children! 17) Let your favor rest on us, Lord, and give success to the work of our hands; yes, give success to the work of our hands!

He who lives in the shelter of the most high, who dwells in the shadow of the almighty 2) says to the Lord: My fortress and my refuge, my God, whom I trust! 3) He rescues you from the snare of the hunter who seeks to destroy you; 4) he covers you with the feathers of his wings, and under his wings you find refuge. 5) You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6) nor the pestilence that stalks about in darkness, nor the plague that devastates at high noon. 7) Let a thousand drop at your side and ten thousand at your right, but you, it will never touch you! 8) Your eyes have only to look; you will see what the wicked will get in return. 9) If you call the Lord your refuge and make the most high your stronghold, 10) evil can never touch you, nor can a plague approach your tent; 11) for he will command his angels to care for you, to care for you wherever you go. 12) They will carry you about in their hands, lest you knock your foot against a stone. 13) On the lion and the viper will you tread; you will trample the lion cub and the serpent.

14) If he loves me, I will rescue him; I will exalt him if he acknowledges my name. 15) When he calls, I will answer him. I will stay with him in time of trouble; I will rescue him and spread a feast for him. 16) With long life will I content him, and I will make him enjoy my saving power.

Glory: Both now:
Alleluia:

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