Lauds - Office for the Dead

Miserere mei, Deus

Have mercy upon me, O God,
according to thy lovingkindness:
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me throughly from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions:
and my sin is ever before me.
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,
and done this evil in thy sight:
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest,
and be clear when thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity;
and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:
and in the hidden part
thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me to hear joy and gladness;
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Hide thy face from my sins,
and blot out all mine iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God;
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence;
and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Then will I teach transgressors thy ways;
and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
thou God of my salvation:
and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
O Lord, open thou my lips;
and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
For thou desirest not sacrifice;
else would I give it:
thou delightest not in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:
a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
thou wilt not despise.

Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion:
build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Then shalt thou be pleased
with the sacrifices of righteousness,
with burnt offering and whole burnt offering:
then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
Psalm 51


Once I said...

"In the noontime of life I must depart!
To the gates of the nether world
I shall be consigned
For the rest of my years."
I said, "I shall see the Lord no more
In the land of the living.
No longer shall I behold my fellow people
Among those who dwell in the world".

My dwelling, like a shepherd's tent,
Is struck down and borne away from me:
You have folded up my life, like a weaver-
Who serves the last thread.

Day and night you give me over to torment;
I cry out until the dawn,
Like a lion God breaks all my bones;
Day and night you give me over to torment.

Like a swallow I utter shrill cries;
I moan like a dove.
My eyes grow weak, gazing heavenward:
O Lord, I am in Straits; be my bond!

You have preserved my life
From the pit of destruction.
When you cast behind your back all my sins.

For it is not the nether world
That gives you thanks,
Nor death that praises you;
Neither do those who go down into the pit
Await your kindness.

The living, the living gives you thanks,
As I do today,
Parents declare to their children,
O God your faithfulness.

The Lord is our savior:
We shall sing stringed instruments
In the house of the Lord
All the days of our life.
Isaiah 38:10-14,17b-20


Praise ye the LORD

Praise the LORD, O my soul.
While I live will I praise the LORD:
I will sing praises unto my God
while I have any being.

Put not your trust in princes,
nor in the son of man,
in whom there is no help.
His breath goeth forth,
he returneth to his earth;
in that very day his thoughts perish.

Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help,
whose hope is in the LORD his God:
Which made heaven, and earth,
the sea, and all that therein is:
which keepeth truth for ever:
Which executeth judgment for the oppressed:
which giveth food to the hungry.

The LORD looseth the prisoners:
The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind:
the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down:
the LORD loveth the righteous:
The LORD preserveth the strangers;
he relieveth the fatherless and widow:
but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.

The LORD shall reign for ever,
even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations.

Praise ye the LORD.
Psalm 146


Office for the Dead