Versicle

At the beginning of the Hours, when either this versicle or O God, come to our aid is recited, everyone makes the sign of the cross.

The General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours states that the invitatory and the versicle "invite the faithful to sing the praises of God, hear his voice and look forward to the 'Rest of the Lord'".

According to the Church, the versicles reply to the short reading, and the brief response "is a kind of acclamation, and enables the word of God to penetrate more deeply into the mind and heart of the person reciting or listening".

[4] In the prayer of a monastery, the hebdomadar recites the first part of the verse, and the convent or congregation responds.

In litanies or in prayers like the Angelus and the Regina coeli there is a versicle before the oration.

The very first versicle of the Liturgy of hours: Domine labia mea aperies – et os meum annuniabit laudem tuam
Sit nomen Domini benedictum – versicle when granting the episcopal blessing. ℣ , a letter V crossed by an oblique line, indicates the versicle in many prayer books