Lacordaire O.P. - Night Office Reading

Lacordaire o.p.,(mononymous), pupit orator

 

Night Office

Monastic Lectionary

A Word in Season, Readings for the Liturgy Hours VI..

TWENTY-SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

SUNDAY

First Reading   2 Kings 14:1-27

Responsonory;  Mt 24:7.11-13; Eph 6:11

Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Many false prophets will arise and lead many astray, and as lawlessness spreads, most people's love will grow cold. But + whoever perseveres to the end will be saved.

v. Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. +Whoever perseveres ...

Second Reading   From a Letter by Lacordaire
Lacordaire, Lacordaire et ls Parole de Dieu: Etudesreligeuses 759, 66-67

If, taught gradually by the Church and imbued with her life-giving breath, we enter with facility of heart into that monument of truth built by God which is the Bible, we will pass under many shadows in its depths, passages where one has to bend one's head, and sublimities where our understanding will almost fail. However, supported by our unfailing companion, the Church herself, we will go from inspiration to inspiration under the firmament of the holy Word, rejoicing with it in the open plains of eternity, admiring Jesus Christ as he comes ever nearer, longing for him with the patriarchs, seeing him from afar with the prophets, greeting him with the harp of the psalms, until at last, on the threshold of the second temple, he appears to us wholly filled with his glory and death, predestined victim of the reconciliation of souls, and sovereign explication of all that is by all that was.

This vision of Jesus Christ not only fills the long roll of holy books; it interweaves great world events. The Christian sees these events therein under the hand of providence, guided by the laws of justice and grace. In this light he discerns the succession of empires, the rise and fall of great races. He realizes that neither chance nor fate mean anything, but that everything progresses under the twofold impulse of the freedom of man and the wisdom of God. This view of the true meaning of history enraptures the Christian. He gains an understanding of life which no experience could give him, because experience shows him only man, whereas the Bible reveals at one and the same time both God in man and man in God.

This revelation not only makes itself felt in the great moments of the Bible; it is there throughout. God is never absent from his work. He is in the field with Boaz, behind the daughter of Naomi, just as he is in Babylon at Belshazzar's feast. He sits by Abraham's tent as a traveler wearied by his journey, just as he dwells on the summit of Mount Sinai in the thunder proclaiming his presence. He helps Joseph in prison, just as he crowns Daniel in captivity. The smallest details of family or wilderness, the names, places, and events, all these are filled with God, and it is in the course of four millennia, from Eden to Calvary, from righteousness lost to righteousness regained, that one follows from beginning to end, step by step, all the movements of his mercy and all those of his might.

Who could remain unmoved by so great a pilgrimage?  Guided by faith along such paths, who could fail to return home a better man? The Bible is at one and the same time the drama of our destiny, the primitive history of the human race, the philosophy of saints, the legislation of a people chosen and governed by God; within the providence of four thousand years it is the preparation and the seed of the whole future of mankind; it is the storehouse of all the truth needed by man, the charter of his rights, the treasury of his hopes, the abyss of his consolations, the kiss of God upon his heart; finally, it is Christ the Son of God who has saved him.

                                                               Responsory     Rm 15:4; 2 Tm 3:16

All that was written long ago in scripture was written for our instruction,+ so that by its encouragement we might have hope.

V. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for refuting error, for correction, and for training in right living, +so that by its ...

Lacordaire, Henri Dominique (1802-1861) Ordained priest in 1827, he worked in association with Lammenais for the periodical L'Avenir, until its modernist teaching was condemned in the Encyclical Mirari vos in 1832. He broke with Lamennais, went to Rome and was clothed as a Dominican there in 1839. The restoration of Dominican life in France in 1850 was due to his efforts. Throughout his life he was impelled by the desire to bring Christianity to a new birth in his own age. He wrote much, including many letters to young people who sought his help. These show his skill and devotion as a spiritual director.