The Optional Memorial of Saint Paulinus of Nola , Bishop, may be observed today using the ferial texts with the Proper Second Reading and Closing Prayer. If it is desired to use any texts from the Common, these may be taken from the Common of Pastors: For a Bishop, found in the ëPrayersí section of the iBreviary.
The Optional Memorial of Saint John Fisher, Bishop, and Saint Thomas More, Martyrs, may be observed today using the ferial texts with the Proper Second Reading and Closing Prayer. If it is desired to use any texts from the Common, these may be taken from the Common of Martyrs: For Several Martyrs, found in the ëPrayersí section of the iBreviary.
The Invitatory is said when this is the first ëhourí of the day.
Lord, + open my lips.
ñ And my mouth will proclaim your praise.
Ant. Come, let us give thanks to the Lord, for his great love is without end.
Psalm 95
A call to praise God
Encourage each other daily while it is still today (Hebrews 3:13).
Come, let us sing to the Lord *
and shout with joy to the Rock who saves us.
Let us approach him with praise and thanksgiving *
and sing joyful songs to the Lord.
Ant. Come, let us give thanks to the Lord, for his great love is without end.
The Lord is God, the mighty God, *
the great king over all the gods.
He holds in his hands the depths of the earth *
and the highest mountains as well.
He made the sea; it belongs to him, *
the dry land, too, for it was formed by his hands.
Ant. Come, let us give thanks to the Lord, for his great love is without end.
Come, then, let us bow down and worship, *
bending the knee before the Lord, our maker.
For he is our God and we are his people, *
the flock he shepherds.
Ant. Come, let us give thanks to the Lord, for his great love is without end.
Today, listen to the voice of the Lord: Ü
Do not grow stubborn, as your fathers did
in the wilderness, *
when at Meriba and Massah
they challenged me and provoked me, *
Although they had seen all of my works.
Ant. Come, let us give thanks to the Lord, for his great love is without end.
Forty years I endured that generation. *
I said, ìThey are a people whose hearts go astray
and they do not know my ways.î
So I swore in my anger, *
ìThey shall not enter into my rest.î
Ant. Come, let us give thanks to the Lord, for his great love is without end.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, *
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, *
and will be for ever. Amen.
Ant. Come, let us give thanks to the Lord, for his great love is without end.
If the Invitatory is not said, then the following is used:
God, + come to my assistance.
ñ Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
ñ as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Alleluia.
FIRST READING
From the book of Judges
13:1-25
The birth of Samson is foretold
The Israelites again offended the Lord, who therefore delivered them into the power of the Philistines for forty years.
There was a certain man from Zorah, of the clan of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren and had borne no children. An angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, ìThough you are barren and have had no children, yet you will conceive and bear a son. Now, then, be careful to take no wine or strong drink and to eat nothing unclean. As for the son you will conceive and bear, no razor shall touch his head, for this boy is to be consecrated to God from the womb. It is he who will begin the deliverance of Israel from the power of the Philistines.î
The woman went and told her husband, ìA man of God came to me; he had the appearance of an angel of God, terrible indeed. I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name. But he said to me, ëYou will be with child and will bear a son. So take neither wine nor strong drink, and eat nothing unclean. For the boy shall be consecrated to God from the womb, until the day of his death.íî Manoah then prayed to the Lord. ìO Lord, I beseech you,î he said, ìmay the man of God whom you sent, return to us to teach us what to do for the boy who will be born.î
God heard the prayer of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting in the field. Since her husband Manoah was not with her, the woman ran in haste and told her husband. ìThe man who came to me the other day has appeared to me,î she said to him; so Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he reached the man, he said to him, ìAre you the one who spoke to my wife?î ìYes,î he answered. Then Manoah asked, ìNow, when that which you say comes true, what are we expected to do for the boy?î The angel of the Lord answered Manoah, ìYour wife is to abstain from all the things of which I spoke to her. She must not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor take wine or strong drink, nor eat anything unclean. Let her observe all that I have commanded her.î
Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, ìCan we persuade you to stay, while we prepare a kid for you?î But the angel of the Lord answered Manoah, ìAlthough you press me, I will not partake of your food. But if you will, you may offer a holocaust to the Lord.î Not knowing that it was the angel of the Lord, Manoah said to him, ìWhat is your name, that we may honor you when your words come true?î The angel of the Lord answered him, ìWhy do you ask my name, which is mysterious?î Then Manoah took the kid with a cereal offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord, whose works are mysteries.
While Manoah and his wife were looking on, as the flame rose to the sky from the altar, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell prostrate to the ground; but the angel of the Lord was seen no more by Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah, realizing that it was the angel of the Lord, said to his wife, ìWe will certainly die, for we have seen God.î But his wife pointed out to him, ìIf the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a holocaust and cereal offering from our hands! Nor would he have let us see all this just now, or hear what we have heard.î
The woman bore a son and named him Samson. The boy grew up and the Lord blessed him; the spirit of the Lord first stirred him in Mahaneh-dan, which is between Zorah and Eshtaol.
RESPONSORY
Luke 1:13, 15; Judges 13:5
The angel said to Zechariah:
Your wife will bear you a son,
and you must name him John;
he will drink no wine or any strong drink,
and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his motherís womb.
ñ For the boy is to be a Nazarite consecrated to God.
The angel of the Lord appeared to the wife of Manoah and said to her:
You shall conceive and bear a son,
and no razor must touch his head.
ñ For the boy is to be a Nazarite consecrated to God.
SECOND READING
From a treatise on the Lordís Prayer by Saint Cyprian, bishop and martyr
(Nn. 23-24: CSEL 3, 284-285)
We are Godís children; let us abide in his peace
Christ clearly laid down an additional rule to bind us by a certain contractual condition: we ask that our debts be forgiven insofar as we forgive our own debtors. Thus we are made aware that we cannot obtain what we ask regarding our own trespasses unless we do the same for those who trespass against us. This is why he says elsewhere: The measure you give will be the measure you get. And the servant who, after his master forgives all his debt, refuses to forgive his fellow servant is thrown into prison. Because he refused to be kind to his fellow servant, he lost the favor his master had given him.
Along with his other precepts Christ lays this down even more forcefully with a most vigorous condemnation. He says: When you stand up to pray, if you have anything against anyone, let it go, so that your heavenly Father may also forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses. You will have no excuse on the day of judgment, for then you will be judged just as you have judged, and you will suffer whatever you have done to others.
God bids us to be peace-loving, harmonious and of one mind in his house; he wants us to live with the new life he gave us at our second birth. As sons of God, we are to abide in peace; as we have one Spirit, we should be one in mind and heart. Thus God does not receive the sacrifice of one who lives in conflict, and he orders us to turn back from the altar and be first reconciled with our brother, that God too may be appeased by the prayers of one who is at peace. The greatest offering we can make to God is our peace, harmony among fellow Christians, a people united with the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
When Cain and Abel first offered their sacrifices, God considered not so much the gifts as the spirit of the giver: God was pleased with Abelís offering because he was pleased with his spirit. Thus Abel the just man, the peacemaker, in his blameless sacrifice taught men that when they offer their gift at the altar they should approach as he did, in the fear of God, simplicity of heart, ruled by justice and peaceful harmony. Since this was the character of Abelís offering, it was only right that he himself should afterward become a sacrifice. As martyrdomís first witness and possessing the Lordís qualities of justice and peace, he foreshadowed the Lordís passion in the glory of his own death. Such, then, are the men who are crowned by the Lord and will be justified with him on the day of judgment.
But Saint Paul and the sacred Scriptures tell us that the quarrelsome man and the troublemaker, who is never at peace with his brothers, cannot escape the charge of internal dissension even though he may die for Christís name. For it is written: He who hates his brother is a murderer, nor can he attain the kingdom of heaven. God cannot abide a murderer. He cannot be united with Christ, who has preferred to imitate Judas rather than Christ.
RESPONSORY
Ephesians 4:1, 3, 4; Romans 15:5, 6
I implore you to lead a life worthy of the vocation to which you have been called.
Be careful to preserve the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace.
ñ There is but one hope given to you by your calling.
May God grant you to live in harmony with one another,
so that together you may glorify God with one voice.
ñ There is but one hope given to you by your calling.
Or:
O God, strength of those who hope in you,
graciously hear our pleas,
and, since without you mortal frailty can do nothing,
grant us always the help of your grace
that in following your commands
we may please you by our resolve and our deeds.
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.
ñ Amen.
For the Memorial of Saint Paulinus of Nola:
SECOND READING
From a letter by Saint Paulinus of Nola, bishop
(Epist. 3 ad Alypium, 1. 5. 6: CSEL 29, 13-14, 17-18)
God everywhere produces his love in his people through the Holy Spirit
You have shown, my lord, that you bear within you true charity and perfect love toward my humble person. Truly holy and deservedly blessed, you are a most desirable friend, for my cousin Julian on his return from Carthage delivered the letter which conveyed to us the shining light of your sanctity. As a result it seems to me that I am not just now coming to know your love for me but rather recognizing it as something I was already aware of. For clearly this love of yours came forth from the one who predestined us for himself from the foundation of the world. In him, the maker of all that is to be, we were made before we were born, because he made us and not we ourselves. Shaped by his work and his foreknowledge, then, we were already joined by charity into a likeness of wills and a union of faith, or a faith of unity, that anticipated our present acquaintance. So before we met in person, we became known to each other in the revelation of the Spirit.
Hence I give thanks and boast in the Lord, who, one and the same throughout the world, produces his love in his people through the Holy Spirit whom he pours out upon all flesh. With the flow of the river he gladdens his city among whose citizens he rightly established you to be the first among the princes of his people in your apostolic see. Likewise, he wanted me, whom he raised up when I was downtrodden, and lifted up from the earth when I was destitute, to be numbered among your associates. But I am more grateful for that gift of the Lord by which he established a place for me in your heart and allowed me so to penetrate your affections that I might claim a personal trust in your love. Moved by such kindnesses and gifts, I could not love you in a merely casual or negligent way.
But you should know everything about me and you should be aware that I am a sinner lf long standing, it is not so long ago that I was led out of darkness and the shadow of death; only recently have I begun to breathe in the air of life; only recently have I put my hand to the plough and taken up the cross of Christ. I need to be helped by your prayers to persevere to the end. And if you should lighten my burden by your intercession, this is the reward that will be added on to your merits, for the holy man who helps a laborer (I dare not call myself a brother) will be exalted like a great city.
We have sent to you a loaf of bread in token of our unity; it symbolizes as well the substance of the Trinity. By accepting it you will make it a bread of blessing.
RESPONSORY
Sirach 31:8, 11, 10
Blessed is the man who is found without fault,
who does not make gold his lifeís object,
who does not put his trust in wealth.
ñ His future will be secure in the Lord.
He was able to sin, but did not;
he was able to do wrong, but would not.
ñ His future will be secure in the Lord.
CONCLUDING PRAYER
Let us pray.
Lord,
you made Saint Paulinus
renowned for his love of poverty
and concern for his people.
May we who celebrate his witness to the Gospel
imitate his example of love for others.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
ñ Amen.
Or:
O God, who made the Bishop Saint Paulinus of Nola
outstanding for love of poverty and for pastoral care,
graciously grant that, as we celebrate his merits,
we may imitate the example of his charity.
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.
ñ Amen.
For the Memorial of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More:
SECOND READING
From a letter written in prison to his daughter Margaret by Saint Thomas More
(The English Works of Sir Thomas More, London, 1557, p. 1454)
With good hope I shall commit myself wholly to God
Although I know well, Margaret, that because of my past wickedness I deserve to be abandoned by God, I cannot but trust in his merciful goodness. His grace has strengthened me until now and made me content to loose goods, land, and life as well, rather than to swear against my conscience. Godís grace has given the king a gracious frame of mind toward me, so that as yet he has taken from me nothing but my liberty. In doing this His Majesty has done me such great good with respect to spiritual profit that I trust that among all the great benefits he has heaped so abundantly upon me I count my imprisonment the very greatest. I cannot, therefore, mistrust the grace of God. Either he shall keep the king in that gracious frame of mind to continue to do me no harm, or else, if it be his pleasure that for my other sins I suffer in this case as I shall not deserve, then his grace shall give me the strength to bear it patiently, and perhaps even gladly.
By the merits of his bitter passion joined to mine and far surpassing in merit for me all that I can suffer myself, his bounteous goodness shall release me from the pains of purgatory and shall increase my reward in heaven besides.
I will not mistrust him, Meg, though I shall feel myself weakening and on the verge of being overcome with fear. I shall remember how Saint Peter at a blast of wind began to sink because of his lack of faith, and I shall do as he did: call upon Christ and pray to him for help. And then I trust he shall place his holy hand on me and in the stormy seas hold me up from drowning.
And if he permits me to play Saint Peter further and to fall to the ground and to swear and forswear, may God our Lord in his tender mercy keep me from this, and let me lose if it so happen, and never win thereby! Still, if this should happen, afterward I trust that in his goodness he will look on me with pity as he did upon Saint Peter, and make me stand up again and confess the truth of my conscience afresh and endure here the shame and harm of my own fault.
And finally, Margaret, I know this well: that without my fault he will not let me be lost. I shall, therefore, with good hope commit myself wholly to him. And if he permits me to perish for my faults, then I shall serve as praise for his justice. But in good faith, Meg, I trust that his tender pity shall keep my poor soul safe and make me commend his mercy.
And, therefore, my own good daughter, do not let your mind be troubled over anything that shall happen to me in this world. Nothing can come but what God wills. And I am very sure that whatever that be, however bad it may seem, it shall indeed be the best.
RESPONSORY
When the martyrs of Christ were suffering,
they turned their minds to heavenly things and cried out:
ñ Help us, O Lord, to complete your work without wavering.
Look down upon your servants
and upon the works of your hands.
ñ Help us, O Lord, to complete your work without wavering.