Blessed Virgin Mary, Saturday memorial. St. Aelred of Rievaulx

Night Office Reading, 
Saturday memorials of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 

Virgin of Kazan
Valamo monastery

       
  The memorial is a remembrance of the maternal example and discipleship of the Blessed Virgin Mary who, strengthened by faith and hope, on that great Saturday on which Our Lord lay in the tomb, was the only one of the disciples to hold vigil in expectation of the Lord’s resurrection; it is a prelude and introduction to the celebration of Sunday, the weekly memorial of the Resurrection of Christ; and it is a sign that the “Virgin Mary is continuously present and operative in the life of the Church”.On Saturdays in Ordinary Time when there is no obligatory memorial, an optional memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary is allowed.

Alternative           Sermon 20    (Breviary)

A reading from the sermons of  St. Aelred of Rievaulx

Mary, our Mother

Let us come to his. bride, let us come to his - mother, let us come to the best of his handmaidens. All of these descriptions fit Blessed Mary.

But what are we to do for her.? What sort of gifts shall we offer her? O that we might at least repay to her the debt we owe her ! We owe her honour, we owe her devotion, we owe her love, we owe her praise. We owe her honour because she is the Mother of our Lord. He, who does not honour the mother, will without doubt dishonour the son. Besides, scripture says: 'Honour your- father and your mother.'

What then shall we say, brethren? Is she not our mother? Certainly, brethren, she is in truth our mother. Through her we are born, not to the world but to God.

We all, as you believe and know, were in death, in the infirmity of old age, in darkness, in misery. In death because we had lost the Lord; in the infirmity of old age, because we were in corruption; in darkness because we had lost the light of wisdom, and so we -had altogether perished.

But through Blessed Mary we all underwent a much better .birth than through Eve, inasmuch as Christ was born of Mary. Instead of the infirmity of age we have regained youth, instead of corruption incorruption, instead of darkness light.

She is our mother, mother of our life, of our incorruption, of our light. The Apostle says of our Lord, ‘Whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification and redemption.

She therefore who. -is the mother of Christ is the mother of our wisdom, mother of our righteousness, mother of our sanctification, mother of our redemption. Therefore she is more our mother than the mother of our flesh. Better therefore is our birth which we derive from Mary, for from her is our holiness, our wisdom; our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption.

Scripture says, 'Praise the Lord in his saints'. If our Lord is to be praised in those saints through whom he performs mighty works and miracles, how much more should he be praised in her in whom he fashioned himself, he who is wonderful beyond all wonder.

RESPONSORY

R/ Blessed is the holy Virgin Mary, and most worthy of all praise; * through her has risen the Sun of, Justice, Christ our God, by whom we are saved and redeemed.

V/ Let us joyfully celebrate this feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary.* Through her has risen ...

Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, alleluia. 31 May 2014

Church of Visitation at Ein Karem - Donald & Nivard  2004

COMMENT: 
Night Office Readings, The Song of Songs, St. Bede "sing Mary’s hymn (Magnificat) at the time of evening prayer.

Previous day, a book in the Library needed the dusk cover to be laminated. The book was St Bernard's Commentary on the Song of Songs.

Next night, 31 May,  to happy surprise, we found the association of the Readings in the Vigil Office and the Hours continue with the weaving of Antiphons on the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
10 years remembering Holy Land  pilgrimage. Donald and Nivard at Ein Karem.

Scheduled for 31 May 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpNCSBjFE88

Pope Francis attends the closing celebration of the Marian month.
Cerimonia di chiusura del mese mariano con la partecipazione di Papa Francesco, nei Giardini Vaticani.

Pictures photos from YouTube screen

Monastic Office of Vigils,    - iBreviary

Ant. Let us sing to the Lord as we celebrate the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, alleluia.   

Statue of the Visitation

Visitation Ein Karem  

FIRST READING

From the Song of Songs
2:8-14; 8:6-7

The coming of the beloved

Hark! my lover—here he comes
springing across the mountains,
leaping across the hills.
My lover is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Here he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattices.

My lover speaks; he says to me,
“Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,
and come!
For see, the winter is past,
the rains are over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of pruning the vines has come,
and the song of the dove is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.
Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,
and come!

“O my dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the secret recesses of the cliff,
Let me see you,
let me hear your voice,
For your voice is sweet,
and you are lovely.”

Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal on your arm;
For stern as death is love,
relentless as the nether world is devotion;
its flames are a blazing fire.
Deep waters cannot quench love,
nor floods sweep it away.
Were one to offer all he owns to purchase love,
he would be roundly mocked.

RESPONSORY
Luke 1:41b-43, 44

Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit
and cried out:
Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
– And who am I
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

For when your greeting sounded in my ears,
the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
– And who am I
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

SECOND READING

From a homily by Saint Bede the Venerable, priest
(Lib. 1, 4: CCL 122, 25-26. 30)

Mary proclaims the greatness of the Lord working in her

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior. With these words Mary first acknowledges the special gifts she has been given. Then she recalls God’s universal favors, bestowed unceasingly on the human race.

When a man devotes all his thoughts to the praise and service of the Lord, he proclaims God’s greatness. His observance of God’s commands, moreover, shows that he has God’s power and greatness always at heart. His spirit rejoices in God his savior and delights in the mere recollection of his creator who gives him hope for eternal salvation.

These words are often for all God’s creations, but especially for the Mother of God. She alone was chosen, and she burned with spiritual love for the son she so joyously conceived. Above all other saints, she alone could truly rejoice in Jesus, her savior, for she knew that he who was the source of eternal salvation would be born in time in her body, in one person both her own son and her Lord.

For the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. Mary attributes nothing to her own merits. She refers all her greatness to the gift of the one whose essence is power and whose nature is greatness, for he fills with greatness and strength the small and the weak who believe in him.

She did well to add: and holy is his name, to warn those who heard, and indeed all who would receive his words, that they must believe and call upon his name. For they too could share in everlasting holiness and true salvation according to the words of the prophet: and it will come to pass, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This is the name she spoke of earlier: and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.

Therefore it is an excellent and fruitful custom of holy Church that we should sing Mary’s hymn at the time of evening prayer. By meditating upon the incarnation, our devotion is kindled, and by remembering the example of God’s Mother, we are encouraged to lead a life of virtue. Such virtues are best achieved in the evening. We are weary after the day’s work and worn out by our distractions. The time for rest is near, and our minds are ready for contemplation.

RESPONSORY
Luke 1:45, 46; Psalm 66:16

Happy are you who have believed,
because the Lord’s promises will be accomplished in you.
And Mary said:
– My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.

Come, and listen,
and I will tell what great things God has accomplished for me.
– My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.

Eastertide 6th Sunday Eusebius of Caesarea

Caldey sea scape, Chapel

 Patristic Lectionary.......

... Anoint the lintel of our mind with the blood of the Lamb who was sacrificed for us  ... 

SIXTH WEEK OF EASTER Year II 

SUNDAY

First Reading      Acts 24:25-25:27 (or 24:25; 25:6-27)

Responsory      Lk 21:12-13; Mk 13:9

They will lay hands on you and persecute you. You will be taken be­fore synagogues and put in prison for my name's sake. + That will be your chance to bear witness, alleluia.

V. They will hand you over to the courts; you will stand before gov­ernors and kings on my account.+ That will be ...  

Second Reading

From the writings of Eusebius of Caesarea
(Treatise on the Paschal Solemnity 7.9.10-12: PG24 , 701-706)   

Sunday Eucharist

In the time of Moses the paschal lamb was sacrificed only once a year, on the fourteenth day of the first month toward evening, but we of the new covenant celebrate our Passover every week on the Lord's day. We are continually being filled with the body of the Saviour and sharing in the blood of the Lamb. Daily we gird ourselves with chastity and prepare, staff in hand, to follow the path of the gospel. Leaning on the rod that came forth from the root of Jesse, we are always departing from Egypt in search of the solitude of the desert. We are constantly setting out on our journey to God and celebrating the Passover. The gospel would have us do these things not only once a year but daily.

We hold our Eucharistic celebration every week on the day of our Lord and Saviour, for this is our paschal feast, the feast of the true Lamb who redeemed us. We do not circumcise the body with a knife, but with the sharp edge of the word of God we cut away all evil from our souls. We use no unleavened bread, except for that of sincerity and truth. Grace has freed us from outworn Jewish customs and created us anew in the image of God. It has given us a new law, a new circumcision, a new Passover, and made us Jews inwardly, thus releasing us from our former bondage.

On the fifth day of the week, while having supper with his disciples, the Saviour said to them: With all my heart I have longed to eat this Passover with you. It was not the old Jewish Passover that he desired to share with his disciples, but the new Passover of the new covenant that he was giving to them, and that many prophets and upright people before him had longed to see. He proclaimed his desire for the new Passover which he, the Word himself, in his infinite thirst for the salvation of the whole human race, was establishing as a feast to be celebrated by all peoples everywhere. The Passover of Moses was not for all peoples, indeed it could not be, because the law allowed it to be celebrated only in Jerusalem. Christ's desire, then, must have been not for that old Passover, but for the saving mystery of the new covenant which was for everyone.

And so we too should eat this Passover with Christ. We should cleanse our minds of all the leaven of evil and wickedness and be filled with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, becoming Jews inwardly, in our souls, where the true circumcision takes place. We should anoint the lintel of our mind with the blood of the Lamb who was sacrificed for us, and so ward off our destroyer. We should do this not only once a year, but every week, continually.

On the day before the Sabbath we fast in memory of our Saviour's passion, as the apostles were the first to do when the bridegroom was taken from them. On the Lord's day we receive life from the sacred body of our saving Passover and our souls are sealed with his precious blood.

Responsory      1 Cor 5:7-8; Heb 10:10

Christ has become our paschal sacrifice. + Let us therefore celebrate the feast not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, alleluia.

V. We have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all. + Let us therefore ...  

Christ the Life of the Soul by Bl. Columba Marmion osb

Monastic Lectionary of the Divine Office

Gracewing (Oct 2005)

Fourth Week of Easter - SATURDAY  Year II

First Reading -  Acts 16:16-40

Responsory      Col1:24; Phil 3:7

I rejoice in the sufferings I endure for you. In my body I fill up what

is lacking in the sufferings of Christ + for the sake of his body, the Church, of which I became a minister, alleluia.

V. My only desire is to know Christ and the power of his resurrec­tion. I want to share his sufferings and resemble him in his death + for the sake ...

Second Reading

From the writings of Blessed Columba Marmion, O.S.B. (Le Christ Vie de l’Ame, 366-368). Trs. 1925 

Marmion-abbot_circa_1918

  

We must give everything to God

We are called to be united with Christ in his sacrifice, and with him to offer ourselves. If we are willing, he takes us with him, immolates us with himself, and lifts us into the Father's presence as an oblation of fragrant sweetness. It is our very selves thatwe must offer with Jesus. If the faithful share through bap­tism in Christ's priesthood, Saint Peter tells us, it is in order that they may offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So true is this that in a prayer between the offertory and consecration the Church refers explicitly to the union between our sacrifice and that of the bridegroom: Lord our God, make these gifts holy, and through them make us a perfect offering to you.

If we are to be thus accepted by God, we must make our self-offering one with the oblation that Christ made of himself on the cross and renews on the altar. Our Lord substituted himself for us in his sacrifice; he took the place of us all. That is why the blow that fell on him has morally slain us too: If one died for all, then all have died. We shall, however, effectively die with him only by uniting ourselves to his eucharistic sacrifice; and how can we be identified with him in his character as victim? By handing ourselves over, as he did, in unreserved obedience to God's good pleasure.

The victim offered to God must be fully at God's disposal.

We must, therefore, live in this basic attitude of giving everything, absolutely everything, to God. Out of love for him we must carry out our acts of renunciation and self-denial, and accept daily sufferings, trials and pain, to such a point that we can say, as Jesus said at the hour of his passion: I act like this so that the world may realize that I love the Father. This is what self-offer­ing with Jesus implies. We give God the most acceptable hom­age he can receive from us when we offer the divine Son to his eternal Father, and when we offer ourselves with this holy and perfect sacrifice in the same dispositions that filled the sacred heart of Christ on the cross: an intense love for the Father and for our brothers and sisters, a burning desire for the salvation of all, and a total abandonment to the divine will in all things, especially when it goes against the grain and is hard for us.

                                                                                                     

We find in this the surest means of transformation into Christ, particularly if we unite ourselves to him in communion, which is the most fruitful way of sharing in the sacrifice of the altar. When Christ finds us thus united with him he immolates us with himself, makes us pleasing to his Father, and transforms us more and more into his own likeness.

Responsory      Col 1:24; Pilil3:7

I rejoice in the sufferings I endure for you. In my body I fill up what

is lacking in the sufferings of Christ, + for the sake of his body, the Church, of which I became a minister, alleluia.

V. My only desire is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. I want to share his sufferings, and resemble him in his death,

+ for the sake ...

Reading from the Exordium Books 1983, 1925 translation.

Available is the newly translation by Alan Bancroft.

Amazon: Christ, the Life of the Soul [Paperback]

Alan Bancroft (Translator)

Holy Triduum. Newman 'You have died that I might live'.

Night Office Readings, 

Holy  Week Good Friday

FRIDAY OF HOLY WEEK, YEAR II

 A READING FROM THE PROPHET JEREMIAH

(The loneliness of the Prophet: Jeremiah 16:1-15)

The word of the LORD came to me: “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, ...

Second Reading (Alternative):

From a sermon by Cardinal Henry Newman

Works of John Henry Newman

Discourse 14. The Mystery of Divine Condescension

http://www.newmanreader.org/works/discourses/discourse14.ht ml

You have died that I might live.

Such would be the conjecture of man, at fault when he speculated on the height of God, and now again at fault when he tries to sound the depth. He thinks that a royal glory is the note of His presence upon earth; lift up your eyes, my brethren, and answer whether he has guessed aright. Oh, incomprehensible in eternity and in time! solitary in heaven, and solitary upon earth! "Who is this, that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozra? Why is Thy apparel red, and Thy garments like theirs that tread in the wine press?" It is because the Maker of man, the Wisdom of God, has come, not in strength, but in weakness. He has come, not to assert a claim, but to pay a debt. Instead of wealth, He has come poor; instead of honour, He has come in ignominy; instead of blessedness, He has come to suffer. He has been delivered over from His birth to pain and contempt; His delicate frame is worn down by cold and heat, by hunger and sleeplessness; His hands are rough and bruised with {302} a mechanic's toil; His eyes are dimmed with weeping; His Name is cast out as evil. He is flung amid the throng of men; He wanders from place to place; He is the companion of sinners. He is followed by a mixed multitude, who care more for meat and drink than for His teaching, or by a city's populace which deserts Him in the day of trial. And at length "the Brightness of God's Glory and the Image of His Substance" is fettered, haled to and fro, buffeted, spit upon, mocked, cursed, scourged, and tortured. "He hath no beauty nor comeliness; He is despised and the most abject of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity;" nay, He is a "leper, and smitten of God, and afflicted". And so His clothes are torn off, and He is lifted up upon the bitter Cross, and there He hangs, a spectacle for profane, impure, and savage eyes, and a mockery for the evil spirit whom He had cast down into hell.

 

Oh, wayward man! discontented first that thy God is far from thee, discontented again when He has drawn near,—complaining first that He is high, complaining next that He is low!—unhumbled being, when wilt thou cease to make thyself thine own centre, and learn that God is infinite in all He does, infinite when He reigns in heaven, infinite when He serves on earth, exacting our homage in the midst of His Angels, and winning homage from us in the midst of sinners? Adorable He is in His eternal rest, adorable in the glory of His court, adorable in the beauty of His works, most adorable of all, most royal, most persuasive in His deformity.

Think you {303} not, my brethren, that to Mary, when she held Him in her maternal arms, when she gazed on the pale countenance and the dislocated limbs of her God, when she traced the wandering lines of blood, when she counted the weals, the bruises, and the wounds, which dishonoured that virginal flesh, think you not that to her eyes it was more beautiful than when she first worshipped it, pure, radiant, and fragrant, on the night of His nativity? Dilectus meus candidus et rubicundus, as the Church sings; "My beloved is white and ruddy; His whole form doth breathe of love, and doth provoke to love in turn; His drooping head, His open palms, and His breast all bare. My beloved is white and ruddy, choice out of thousands; His head is of the finest gold; His locks are branches of palm-trees, black as a raven. His eyes as doves upon brooks of waters, which are washed with milk, and sit beside the plentiful streams. His cheeks are as beds of aromatical spices set by the perfumers; His lips are lilies dropping choice myrrh. His hands are turned and golden, full of jacinths; His throat is most sweet, and He is all lovely. Such is my beloved, and He is my friend, O ye daughters of Jerusalem."

So is it, O dear and gracious Lord, "the day of death is better than the day of birth, and better is the house of mourning than the house of feasting". Better for me that Thou shouldst come thus abject and dishonourable, than hadst Thou put on a body fair as Adam's when he came out of Thy Hand. Thy glory sullied, Thy beauty marred, those five wounds welling out blood, those temples torn and raw, that {304} broken heart, that crushed and livid frame, they teach me more, than wert Thou Solomon "in the diadem wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his heart's joy". The gentle and tender expression of that Countenance is no new beauty, or created grace; it is but the manifestation, in a human form, of Attributes which have been from everlasting. Thou canst not change, O Jesus; and, as Thou art still Mystery, so wast Thou always Love. I cannot comprehend Thee more than I did, before I saw Thee on the Cross; but I have gained my lesson. I have before me the proof that in spite of Thy awful nature, and the clouds and darkness which surround it, Thou canst think of me with a personal affection. Thou hast died, that I might live. "Let us love God," says Thy Apostle, "because He first hath loved us." I can love Thee now from first to last, though from first to last I cannot understand Thee. As I adore Thee, O Lover of souls, in Thy humiliation, so will I admire Thee and embrace Thee in Thy infinite and everlasting power.  

Lent 4th Week Monday. Blessed Columba Marmion, 'We are the sacrifice'

Night Office Readings, 

 I was interested in the yellow bush outside the Church. Fr. M. was able to identify the FORSTHIA, picture.

[Forsythia Bushes - Colourful Shrubs for Border Plantings].  

FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

MONDAY  Year II

First Reading Leviticus 16:1-28

Responsory                  Heb 9:11.12.24

Christ came as the high priest of the good things to come. Not  with the blood of goats or calves, but with his own blood t he entered the holy place once for all, and won our eternal salvation.

Y. He did not enter a holy place fashioned by man: he entered heav­en itself. + He entered the ...

Second Reading 

 From the writings of Blessed Columba Marmion, O.S. B. (Le Christ, vie de l'ame, 337-339)

We are the sacrifice

We are called to be united with Christ in his sacrifice, and with him to offer ourselves. If we are willing, he takes us with him, immolates us with himself and lifts us into the Father's presence as an oblation of fragrant sweetness. It is our very selves that we must offer with Jesus. If the faithful share through baptism in Christ's priesthood, Saint Peter tells us, it is in order that they may offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. So true is this that in a prayer between the offertory and consecration the Church refers explicitly to the union between our sacrifice and that of the bridegroom: Lord our God, make these gifts holy, and through them make us a perfect offering to you. 

If we are to be thus accepted by God, we must make our self-offering one with the oblation that Christ made of himself on the cross and renews on the altar. Our Lord substituted himself for us in his sacrifice; he took the place of us all. That is why the blow that fell on him has morally slain us too: If one died for all, then all have died. We shall, however, effectively die with him only by uniting ourselves to his eucharistic sacrifice; and how can we be identified with him in his character as vic­tim? By handing ourselves over, as he did, in unreserved obe­dience to God's good pleasure. 

The victim offered to God must be fully at God's disposal. We must, therefore, live in this basic attitude of giving every­thing, absolutely everything, to God. Out of love, for him we must carry out our acts of renunciation and self-denial, and accept daily sufferings, trials and pain, to such a point that we can say, as Jesus said at the hour of his passion: I act like this so that the world may realize that I love the Father. This is what self­offering with Jesus implies. We give God the most acceptable homage he can receive from us when we offer the divine Son to his eternal Father, and when we offer ourselves with this holy and perfect sacrifice in the same dispositions that filled the sacred heart of Christ on the cross: an intense love for the Father and for our brothers and sisters, a burning desire for

the salvation of all, and a total abandonment to the divine will in all things, especially when it goes against the grain and is hard for us. We find in this the surest means of transformation into Christ, particularly if we unite ourselves to him in communion, which is the most fruitful way of sharing in the sacrifice of the altar. When Christ finds us thus united with him he immolates us with himself, makes us pleasing to his Father and transforms us more and more into his own likeness. 

Responsory Gal 2:19-20

With Christ I have been nailed to the cross, t and I live now no longer my own life, but the life of Christ who lives in me.

V. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave up his life for me. + And I live ... +

Lent 3rd Week Wed. St. Ambrose, Moses’ intimacy with God

 Night Office Readings, 

Monastic Lectionary for the Divine Office

Edited by

Friends of Henry Ashworth

Exordium Books 1982

THIRD WEEK OF LENT - Wednesday  Year II

Moses’ intimacy with God

First Reading

From the book of Exodus (33:7-11.18-23; 34:5-9.29-35)

2 Corinthians 3:13.18.15

Responsory

Moses veiled his face to hide it from the people of Israel

+ but we behold the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces and grow ever more radiant,

as we are transformed into his likeness by the Lord who is Spirit.

To this day that same veil lies over their minds.

+ But we behold ...

Second Reading

From a commentary on psalm 118 by Saint Ambrose
(Senno 17, 26-29: CSEL62, 390-392)

Moses veiled his face after speaking with God as the people could not bear to see its radiance, but the Gentiles saw the Father's glory in the face of Jesus with unveiled faces, thus fulfilling an innate longing of our nature.

Let your face shine on your servant, and teach me your precepts. The Lord enlightens his saints and makes his light shine in the hearts of the just. This means that when you see wisdom in anyone you can be sure that the glory of God has come down and flooded that person's mind with the light of understanding and knowledge of divine truth. With Moses, however, it was different: God's glory affected his body also, causing his face to shine. Indeed, his countenance was so transfigured that the Jews were afraid to look at him, and he was obliged to cover his face with a veil so that the children of Israel should not be alarmed at the sight of it.

Now the face of Moses represents the splendour of the law; yet this splendor is not to be found in the written letter but in the law's spiritual interpretation. As long as Moses lived, he wore a veil over his face whenever he spoke to the Jewish people. But after his death Jesus, or Joshua, the son of Nun, spoke to the elders and the people without a veil. When he did so no one was afraid, even though God had spoken to Joshua as well as to Moses, assuring him that he would be with him just as he had been with Moses and would make him resplendent also. Joshua's glory, however, would be seen in his deeds rather than in his face. By this the Holy Spirit signified that when Jesus, the true Joshua, came, he would lift the veil from the heart of anyone who turned to him in willingness to listen, and that person would then see his true Saviour with unveiled face.

So it was that, through the coming of his Son, God the almighty Father made his light shine into the hearts of the Gentiles, bringing them to see his glory in the face of Christ Jesus. This is clearly stated in the Apostle's letter, where we find the following written: The God who commanded light to shine out of darkness has made his light shine in our hearts, to enlighten us with the knowledge of God's glory shining in the face of Christ Jesus.

And so when David says to the Lord Jesus: Let your face shine upon your seruani, he is expressing his longing to see the face of Christ, so that his mind may be capable of enlightenment. These words can be taken as referring to the incarnation. for as the Lord himself declared: Many prophets and righteous men have desired to have this vision. David was not asking for what had been denied to Moses, namely that he might see the face of the incorporeal God with his bodily eyes. (And yet if Moses, who was such a wise and learned man, could ask for this direct, unmediated vision. it was because it is inherent in our human nature for our desire to reach out beyond us.) There was nothing wrong, therefore, in David's desire to see the face of the Virgin's Son who was to come; he desired it in order that God's light might shine in his heart, as it shone in the hearts of the. disciples who said: Were not our hearts burning within us when he opened up the Scriptures to us?

Responsory

Isaiah 9:2; John 8:12

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

+On those who dwelt in a land of deep shadow

a light has shone.

I am the light of the world;

those who follow me will not be walking in the dark,

but will have the light of life.

 + On those who ...

Lent 3rd Week Saint Thomas More

Night Office Readings - Ratification of the covenant

 

Thomas More by Hans Holbein the Younger.

TWO YEAR LECTIONARY

PATRISTIC VIGILS

READINGS

Editions Exordium  Books 1982, Augustine  Press2001

LENT

YEAR 2

Monday of the Third Week in Lent Year II

First Reading

From the book of Exodus (24:1-18)

Sirach 45:5-6; Acts 7:38

Responsory

God allowed Moses to hear his voice and led him into the cloud.

– Face to face he gave him his commandments,

that he might teach Jacob his precepts and Israel his decrees.

In the desert assembly

Moses was the mediator between our ancestors and the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai

– Face to face ...

Second Reading

From A Treatise upon the Passion by Saint Thomas More

(Chapter 4, sermon 1. Partially modernized)

More's Treatise (or as we should say today "homilies") upon the Passion was probably written in the early months of 1534. This extract from it contrasts the old covenant and the new. The first was ratified by the blood of an animal, the second by the blood of a man who was also God. Through that blood, which he gives us to drink in the blessed sacrament, our sins are forgiven.

In the twenty-fourth chapter of Exodus it is related that Moses, in confirmation of the old law, put half the blood of the sacrifice into a cup, and the other half he shed upon the altar. And after the book of the law had been read he sprinkled the blood upon the people, and said unto them: This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in all these words. And so was the Old Testament ratified and confirmed with blood. And in like manner was the New Testament confirmed with blood, saving that, in order to declare the greater excellence of the New Testament brought by the Son of God, above the Old Testament brought by the prophet Moses, whereas the Old Testament was ratified with the blood of a brute beast, the New Testament was ratified with the blood of a reasonable man, and of that man who was also God, that is to say, with the blessed blood of our holy Saviour himself. And that self-same blood did our Lord here give unto his apostles in this blessed sacrament, as he plainly declared himself, saying: This is my blood of the New Testament, or: This is the chalice of the New Testament in my blood which shall be shed for you and for all for the remission of sins.

When our Lord said this, he declared therein the efficacy of the New Testament above the old, in that the old law in the blood of beasts could only promise the remission of sin that was to come later. For as Saint Paul says: It was impossible that sin should be taken away by the blood of brute beasts. But the new law with the blood of Christ does perform the thing that the old law promised, that is, the remission of sin And therefore our Saviour said: This is the chalice of the New Testament in my blood – that is, to be confirmed in my blood – which shall be shed for the remission of sins.

His words also declared the wonderful excellence of this new blessed sacrament above the sacrifice of the paschal lamb, in these words: For you and for all. For in these words our Saviour spoke, says Saint Chrysostom, as though he meant to say: The blood of the paschal Lamb was shed only for the first-born among the children of Israel, but this blood of mine shall be shed for the remission of the sin of all the whole world

Responsory   Revelation 5:9; Psalm 85:9

English Saints: Thomas More and Thomas Cranmer  By Lauren Gilbert

http://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/english-saints-thomas-more-and-thomas.html  

Ash Wednesday Patristic Lectionary,

Night Office Readings  

See previous Wednesday, 13 February 2013  
http://nunraw.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/thomas-merton-reading-ash-wednesday-13.html  Thomas Merton Reading Ash Wednesday 13 Feb 2013

 

       ASH WEDNESDAY

Night Office -Alternative Reading

From  Thomas Merton, O.CS.O.

(Meditations on the Liturgy, 100-101)

A time of metanoia

TWO YEAR LECTIONARY

PATRISTIC VIGILS READINGS

EXORDIUM BOOKS 1982

LENT

ASH WEDNESDAY - YEAR 2

FIREST READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH

(On the fast that pleases God: Isaiah 58:1-12)

“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. ...

SECOND READING

From a letter to the Corinthians by Saint Clement I, pope and martyr
(Cap. 7, 7-8, 3; 8, 5-9, 1;13, 1-4; 19, 2: Funk 1, 71-73, 77-78)

Repent

Let us fix our attention on the blood of Christ and recognize how precious it is to God his Father, since it was shed for our salvation and brought the grace of repentance to all the world.

If we review the various ages of history, we will see that in every generation the Lord has offered the opportunity of repentance to any who were willing to turn to him. When Noah preached God’s message of repentance, all who listened to him were saved. Jonah told the Ninevites they were going to be destroyed, but when they repented, their prayers gained God’s forgiveness for their sins, and they were saved, even though they were not of God’s people.

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the ministers of God’s grace have spoken of repentance; indeed, the Master of the whole universe himself spoke of repentance with an oath: As I live, says the Lord, I do not wish the death of the sinner but his repentance. He added this evidence of his goodness: House of Israel, repent of your wickedness. Tell the sons of my people: If their sins should reach from earth to heaven, if they are brighter than scarlet and blacker than sackcloth, you need only turn to me with your whole heart and say, “Father”, and I will listen to you as a holy people.

In other words, God wanted all his beloved ones to have the opportunity to repent and he confirmed this desire by his own almighty will. That is why we should obey his sovereign and glorious will and prayerfully entreat his mercy and kindness. We should be suppliant before him and turn to his compassion, rejecting empty works and quarreling and jealousy which only lead to death.

Brothers, we should be humble in mind, putting aside all arrogance, pride and foolish anger. Rather, we should act in accordance with the Scriptures, as the Holy Spirit says: The wise man must not glory in his wisdom nor the strong man in his strength nor the rich man in his riches. Rather, let him who glories glory in the Lord by seeking him and doing what is right and just. Recall especially what the Lord Jesus said when he taught gentleness and forbearance. Be merciful, he said, so that you may have mercy shown to you. Forgive, so that you may be forgiven. As you treat others, so you will be treated. As you give, so you will receive. As you judge, so you will be judged. As you are kind to others, so you will be treated kindly. The measure of your giving will be the measure of your receiving.

Let these commandments and precepts strengthen us to live in humble obedience to his sacred words. As Scripture asks: Whom shall I look upon with favor except the humble, peaceful man who trembles at my words?

Sharing then in the heritage of so many vast and glorious achievements, let us hasten toward the goal of peace, set before us from the beginning. Let us keep our eyes firmly fixed on the Father and Creator of the whole universe, and hold fast to his splendid and transcendent gifts of peace and all his blessings.

RESPONSORY
Isaiah 55:7; Joel 2:13; See Ezekiel 33:11

Let the evil man give up his way of life,
and the sinful man his thoughts.
Let him turn back to the Lord,
and the Lord will have mercy on him.
– Our God is kind and compassionate,
always ready to forgive.

The Lord does not wish the sinner to die,
but to turn back to him and live.
– Our God is kind and compassionate,
always ready to forgive.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Let us pray.

Lord,
protect us in our struggle against evil.
As we begin the discipline of Lent,
make this day holy by our self-denial.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

Or:

Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting
this campaign of Christian service,
so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils,
we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

ACCLAMATION 

Let us praise the Lord.
– And give him thanks.
*************************

Alternative Reading 

FROM A SERMON BY ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

St John Chrysostom, Oratio 3 Adversus Iudaeos (PG 48, 867-868); from Word in Season II, 1st ed.

Explaining the great Lenten fast, Chrysostom emphasizes the work of purification this liturgical season is meant to accomplish in the people of God. The homily was delivered at Antioch in 336 or 387.

Why do we fast for forty days?             Insert jump break