Thursday of the Fifteenth week in Ordinary Time

The way of the just is uprightness. You who are upright make the path of the righteous level. Yes, in the way of your judgments, the Lord, have we waited for you. Your name and your renown are the desire of our soul. With my soul I have desired you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you earnestly; for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. The Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have also done all our work for us. The Lord, in trouble they have visited you. They poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them. Just as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so we have been before you, the Lord. We have been with child. We have been in pain. We gave birth, it seems, only to wind. We have not worked any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast out the departed spirits.

You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for it is time to have pity on her. Yes, the set time has come. For your servants take pleasure in her stones, and have pity on her dust. So the nations will fear the Lord’s name; all the kings of the earth your glory. For the Lord has built up Zion. He has appeared in his glory. He has responded to the prayer of the destitute, and has not despised their prayer. This will be written for the generation to come. A people which will be created will hallelujah. For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary. From heaven, the Lord saw the earth; to hear the groans of the prisoner; to free those who are condemned to death; that men may declare the Lord’s name in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem;

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”