Prayers for December

(from the 2nd Section of the Post-Lourdes Study Topic)

 

Meditation: Ephesians 5:21-33

 

Give way to one another in obedience to Christ. Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife; and as the Church submits to Christ, so should wives to their husbands, in everything.  Husbands should love their wives just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed Himself for her to make her holy. He made her clean by washing her in water with a form of words, so that when he took her to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless.  In the same way husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself.  A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way Christ treats the Church, because it is His body - and we are its living parts. For this reason, a man must leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one body. This mystery has many implications; but I am saying it applies to Christ and the Church. To sum up; you too, each one of you, must love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife respect her husband.

 

Responsorial Psalm:  Psalm 33

 

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

 

  1. I will bless the Lord at all times,

His praise is always on my lips;

In the Lord my soul shall make its boast

The humble shall hear and be glad. (R)

 

2.      The Lord turns his face against the wicked,

To destroy their remembrance from the earth.

The Lord turns his eyes to the just

And his ears to their appeal. (R)

 

  1. They call and the Lord hears

And rescues them in all their distress.

The Lord is close to the broken-hearted;

Those whose spirit is crushed he will save. (R)

  1. Many are the trials of the just man

But from them all the Lord will rescue him.

He will keep guard over all his bones

Not one of his bones shall be broken. (R)

 

  1. Evil brings death to the wicked;

Those who hate the good are doomed.

The Lord ransoms the souls of his servants.

Those who hide in him shall not be condemned. (R)

 

Concluding Prayer:

 

God our Father, may we love you in all things and above all things and reach the joy you have prepared for us beyond our imagining. Amen.