Prayer
Invitatory
O Lord, open my lips, ✠ and my mouth will declare your praise.
Psalm 100
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” (Psalm 122:1)
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come into his presence with singing.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he that made us, and we are his;[a]
we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him, bless his name.
For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen.
Office of Readings
Be pleased, O God, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me! (Psalm 70:1)
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.
Second Reading
"The Meaning of the Fear of the Lord" by St. Hilary of Poitiers
"Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways" (Ps. 128:1). Notice that when Scripture speaks of the fear of the Lord it does not leave the phrase in isolation, as if it were a complete summary of faith. No, many things are added to it or are presupposed by it. From there, we may learn its meaning and excellence. In the book of Proverbs Solomon tells us: "if your plea is for clear perception, if you cry out for discernment, if you look for it as if it were silver, and search for it as for buried treasure, you will then understand what the fear of the Lord is, and discover the knowledge of God" (Proverbs 2:3-5). We see here the difficult journey we must undertake before we can arrive at the fear of the Lord.
We must begin by crying out for wisdom. We must hand over to our intellect the duty of making every decision. We must look for wisdom and search for it. Then we must understand the fear of the Lord.
“Fear” is not to be taken in the sense that common usage gives it. Fear in this ordinary sense is the trepidation our weak humanity feels when it is afraid of suffering something it does not want to happen. We are afraid, or made afraid, because of a guilty conscience, the rights of someone more powerful, an attack from one who is stronger, sickness, encountering a wild beast, suffering evil in any form. This kind of fear is not taught: it happens because we are weak. We do not have to learn what we should fear: objects of fear bring their terror with them.
But of the fear of the Lord this is what is written: "Come, my sons, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord" (Ps. 34:11). The fear of the Lord has then to be learned because it can be taught. It does not lie in terror, but in something that can be taught. It does not arise from the fearfulness of our nature; it has to be acquired by obedience to the commandments, by holiness of life and by knowledge of the truth.
For us, the fear of God consists wholly in love, and perfect love of God brings our fear of him to its perfection. Our love for God is entrusted with its responsibility: to observe his counsels, to obey his laws, and to trust his promises. Let us hear what Scripture says: "And now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God ask of you? Only this: to fear Yahweh your God, to follow all his ways, to love him, to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and all your soul, to keep the commandments and laws of the Lord that for your good I lay down for you today" (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).
The ways of the Lord are many, though he is himself the way. When he speaks of himself he calls himself the way and shows us the reason why he called himself the way: "No one can come to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).
We must ask for these many ways, we must travel along these many ways, to find the good one. That is, we shall find the one way of eternal life through the guidance of many teachers. These ways are found in the law, in the prophets, in the gospels, in the writings of the apostles, and in the different good works by which we fulfil the commandments. Blessed are those who walk these ways in the fear of the Lord.