Reading I
Num 21:4-9

From Mount Hor the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road,
to bypass the land of Edom.
But with their patience worn out by the journey,
the people complained against God and Moses,
“Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,
where there is no food or water?
We are disgusted with this wretched food!”

In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,
which bit the people so that many of them died.
Then the people came to Moses and said,
“We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.
Pray the LORD to take the serpents away from us.”
So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses,
“Make a saraph and mount it on a pole,
and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live.”
Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole,
and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent
looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 102:2-3, 16-18, 19-21

R. (2) O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
O LORD, hear my prayer,
and let my cry come to you.
Hide not your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;
in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
“The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die.”
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.

Gospel
Jn 8:21-30

Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“I am going away and you will look for me,
but you will die in your sin.
Where I am going you cannot come.”
So the Jews said,
“He is not going to kill himself, is he,
because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”
He said to them, “You belong to what is below,
I belong to what is above.
You belong to this world,
but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.
For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins.”
So they said to him, “Who are you?”
Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.
I have much to say about you in condemnation.
But the one who sent me is true,
and what I heard from him I tell the world.”
They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.
So Jesus said to them,
“When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to him.”
Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

Farewell to Alleluia and Gloria
During the penitential seasons of the Church, the Gloria and the Alleluia are not said or sung. The Gloria is sung only at the Mass on Holy Thursday, usually with great ceremony, organ and sometimes trumpets, and often with the ringing of bells. After the singing of the Gloria, musical instruments are to be silent until the Alleluia at the Easter Vigil. (Catholic families might imitate this solemn silence by not playing instrumental music in their homes at this time.)

In the Middle Ages and throughout the 16th century, the "burying" of the Alleluia was a solemn ritual on Septuagesima Sunday. A procession of children carrying a wooden plaque bearing the word "Alleluia" laid it at the feet of the statue of the Blessed Virgin, covering it with a purple cloth. It remained there until Easter at the Gospel procession, when the plaque was carried as the priest intoned the three Alleluias before the Easter Gospel. In Paris, a straw figure inscribed with the word was carried out of the choir at the end of the service and burned in the church yard.

Although the practice of literally removing the Alleluia from the Church may have disappeared, even today in some parish celebrations of the Easter Vigil an Alleluia card is carried in procession and placed in front of the altar during the singing of the first Alleluias before the Gospel for Easter.

The hymn Alleluia, Song of Gladness and the one that follows date from the early 9th and 10th centuries; both refer to the farewell to the Alleluia in the liturgy.

From: Numbers 21:4-9

The Bronze Serpent

[4] From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the
land of Edom; and the people became impatient on the way. [5] And the people
spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of
Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we
loathe this worthless food." [6] Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the
people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. [7] And
the people came to Moses, and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken
against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord, that he take away the
serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. [8] And the Lord said to
Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is
bitten, when he sees it, shall live." [9] So Moses made a bronze serpent,
and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the
bronze serpent and live.

Commentary:

21:4-9. The people continue to complain against Moses, this time because
they have to go right around Edom. But their protest is also directed
against God. When they are punished, Moses once again intercedes on their
behalf. The events covered in this account may have taken place in the
region of Araba, where copper mines existed from the 13th century BC
onwards. In the town now called Timna, an Egyptian shrine has been unearthed
which contained a copper serpent, indicating that some sort of magical power
was attributed to these serpents.

This passage in Numbers is interpreted in Wisdom 16:5-12, where the point is
emphasized that it was not the bronze serpent that cured them but the mercy
of God; the serpent was a sign of the salvation which God offers all men.
The bronze serpent is mentioned later, in the Gospel, as typifying Christ
raised up on the cross, the cause of salvation for those who look at him
with faith: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the
Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believes in him may have eternal
life" (Jn 3:14-15) When Christ is raised above all human things, he draws
them towards himself; so his glorification is the means whereby all mankind
obtain healing for ever more.

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: John 8:21-30

Jesus Warns the Unbelieving Jews

[21] Again He (Jesus) said to them, "I go away, and you will seek Me
and die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come." [22] Then
said the Jews, "Will He kill Himself, since He says, `Where I am going,
you cannot come?'" [23] He said to them, "You are from below, I am
from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. [24] I told
you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins
unless you believe that I am He." [25] They said to Him, "Who are
You?" Jesus said to them, "Even what I have told you from the
beginning. [26] I have much to say about you and much to judge; but He
who sent Me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from
Him." [27] They did not understand that He spoke to them of the
Father. [28] So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man,
then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing on My own
authority but speak thus as the Father taught Me. [29] And He who sent
Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do what is
pleasing to Him." [30] As He spoke thus, many believed in Him.

Commentary:

21-24. At the outset of His public ministry, Jesus could be seen to
have all the features of the promised Messiah; some people recognized
Him as such and became His followers (cf. John 1:12-13; 4:42; 6:69;
7:41); but the Jewish authorities, although they were expecting the
Messiah (cf. John 1:19ff), persisted in their rejection of Jesus.
Hence the warning to them: He is going where they cannot follow, that
is, He is going to Heaven, which is where He has come from (cf. John
6:41ff), and they will keep looking out for the Messiah foretold by the
prophets; but they will not find Him because they look for Him outside
of Jesus, nor can they follow Him, for they do not believe in Him. You
are of the world, our Lord is saying to them, not because you are on
earth but because you are living under the influence of the prince of
this world (cf. John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11); you are his vassals and you
do his deeds (cf. 8:44); therefore, you will die in your sin. "We are
all born with sin", St. Augustine comments, "all by our living have
added to what we were by nature, and have become more of this world
than we then were, when we were born of our parents. Where would we be
if He had not come, who had no sin at all, to loose all sin? The Jews,
because they did not believe in Him, deserved to have it said to them,
'You will die in your sin'" ("In Ioann. Evang.", 38, 6).

The salvation which Christ brings will be applied to those who believe
in His divinity. Jesus declares His divinity when He says "I am He",
for this expression, which He repeats on other occasions (cf. John.
8:28; 13:19), is reserved to Yahweh in the Old Testament (cf.
Deuteronomy 32:39; Isaiah 43:10-11), where God, in revealing His name
and therefore His essence, says to Moses "I AM WHO I AM" (Exodus
3:14). In this profound way God says that He is the Supreme Being in a
full, absolute sense, that He is dependent on no other being, that all
other things depend on Him for their being and existence. Thus, when
Jesus says of Himself, "I am He", He is revealing that He is God.

25. A little before this Jesus had spoken about His Heavenly origin and
His divine nature (cf. verses 23-24); but the Jews do not want to
accept this revelation; which is why they ask Him for an even more
explicit statement: "Who are You?" Our Lord's reply can be understood
in different ways, because the Greek text has two meanings: 1) our Lord
is confirming what He has just asserted (cf. verses 23-24) and what He
has been teaching throughout this visit to Jerusalem--in which case it
may be translated "precisely what I am telling you" or else "in the
first place what I am telling you". This is the interpretation given
in the New Vulgate. 2) Jesus is indicating that He is the "Beginning",
which is the word St. John also uses in the Apocalypse to designate the
Word, the cause of all creation (Revelation 3:14; cf. Revelation 1:8).
In this way Jesus states His divine origin. This is the interpretation
given in the Vulgate. Either way, Christ is once more revealing His
divinity; He is reaffirming what He said earlier, but without saying it
all over again.

"Many people in our own days ask the same question: 'Who are You?'
[...] Who, then, was Jesus? Our faith exults and cries out: it is He,
it is He, the Son of God made man. He is the Messiah we were
expecting: He is the Savior of the world, the Master of our lives: He
is the Shepherd that guides men to their pastures in time, to their
destinies beyond time. He is the joy of the world; He is the image of
the invisible God: He is the way, the truth and the life; He is the
interior friend; He is the One who knows us even from afar; He knows
our thoughts; He is the One who can forgive us, console, cure, even
raise from the dead; and He is the One who will return, the judge of
one and all, in the fullness of His glory and our eternal happiness"
(Paul VI, "General Audience", 11 December 1974).

26-27. "He who sent Me": an expression very often found in St. John's
Gospel, referring to God the Father (cf. 5:37; 6:44; 7:28; 8:16).

The Jews who were listening to Jesus did not understand whom He was
referring to; but St. John, in recounting this episode, explains that
He meant His Father, from Whom He came.

"He spoke to them of the Father": this is the reading in most of the
Greek codexes, including the more important ones. Other Greek codexes
and some translations, including the Vulgate, read, "He was calling God
His Father."

"What I have heard from Him": Jesus had connatural knowledge of His
Father, and it is from this knowledge that He speaks to men; He knows
God not through revelation or inspiration as the prophets and sacred
writers did, but in an infinitely higher way: which is why He can say
that no one knows the Father but the Son and He to whom the Son chooses
to reveal Him (cf. Mt 11:27).

On the type of knowledge Jesus had during His life on earth, see the
note on Luke 2:52.

28. Our Lord is referring to His passion and death: "`And I, when I am
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself'. He said this
to show by what death He was to die" (John 12:32-33). Rounding out the
Synoptics and the Letters of St. Paul, the Fourth Gospel presents the
Cross, above all, as a royal throne on which Christ is "lifted up" and
from which He offers all men the fruits of salvation (cf. John 3:14-15;
cf. also Numbers 21:9ff; Wisdom 16:6).

Jesus says that when that time comes, the Jews will know who He is and
His intimate union with the Father, because many of them will discover,
thanks to His death and resurrection, that He is the Messiah, the Son
of God (cf. Matthew 15:39; Lk 33:48). After the coming of the Holy
Spirit many thousands will believe in Him (cf. Acts 2:41; 4:4).

Office of Readings -- Awakening Prayer

Office of Readings

If this is the first Hour that you are reciting today, you should precede it with the Invitatory Psalm.

O God, come to my aid.
O Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

A suitable hymn may be inserted at this point.

Psalm 9B (10)
Thanksgiving
With what purpose, Lord, do you stay away, hide yourself in time of need and trouble? The wicked in their pride persecute the weak, trap them in the plots they have devised. The sinner glories in his desires, the miser congratulates himself. The sinner in his arrogance rejects the Lord: “there is no God, no retribution”. This is what he thinks – and all goes well for him. Your judgements are far beyond his comprehension: he despises all who stand against him. The sinner says to himself: “I will stand firm; nothing can touch me, from generation to generation”. His mouth is full of malice and deceit, under his tongue hide trouble and distress. He lies in ambush by the villages, he kills the innocent in some secret place. He watches the weak, he hides like a lion in its lair, and makes plans. He plans to rob the weak, lure him to his trap and rob him. He rushes in, makes a dive, and the poor victim is caught. For he has said to himself, “God has forgotten. He is not watching, he will never see”. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Psalm 9B (10)

Thanksgiving

With what purpose, Lord, do you stay away, hide yourself in time of need and trouble?
The wicked in their pride persecute the weak, trap them in the plots they have devised.
The sinner glories in his desires, the miser congratulates himself.
The sinner in his arrogance rejects the Lord: “there is no God, no retribution”.
This is what he thinks – and all goes well for him.
Your judgements are far beyond his comprehension: he despises all who stand against him.

The sinner says to himself: “I will stand firm; nothing can touch me, from generation to generation”.
His mouth is full of malice and deceit, under his tongue hide trouble and distress.
He lies in ambush by the villages, he kills the innocent in some secret place.
He watches the weak, he hides like a lion in its lair, and makes plans.
He plans to rob the weak, lure him to his trap and rob him.
He rushes in, makes a dive, and the poor victim is caught.
For he has said to himself, “God has forgotten. He is not watching, he will never see”.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

Psalm 9B (10)
Rise up, Lord, raise your hand! Do not forget the weak. Why does the wicked man spurn God? Because he says to himself, “you will not take revenge”. But you do see: you see the trouble and the pain, and then you take things into your own hands. The weak fall to your care, and you are the help of the orphan. Break the arms of the sinner and evil-doer: seek out wickedness until there is no more to be found. The Lord is King for ever and for ever. The Gentiles have perished from his land. You have heard the prayer of the weak, Lord, and you will strengthen their hearts. You will lend your ear to the pleas of the orphans and the helpless, so mere mortals can frighten them no longer. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Psalm 9B (10)

Rise up, Lord, raise your hand! Do not forget the weak.
Why does the wicked man spurn God? Because he says to himself, “you will not take revenge”.

But you do see: you see the trouble and the pain, and then you take things into your own hands.
The weak fall to your care, and you are the help of the orphan.
Break the arms of the sinner and evil-doer: seek out wickedness until there is no more to be found.

The Lord is King for ever and for ever. The Gentiles have perished from his land.
You have heard the prayer of the weak, Lord, and you will strengthen their hearts.
You will lend your ear to the pleas of the orphans and the helpless, so mere mortals can frighten them no longer.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

Psalm 11 (12)
A prayer against the proud
Save me, Lord, for the good men are all gone: there is no-one to be trusted among the sons of men. Neighbour speaks falsehood to neighbour: with lying lips and crooked hearts they speak. Let the Lord condemn all lying lips, all boastful tongues. They say “Our tongues will make us great, our lips are ours, we have no master”. “On account of the sufferings of the poor, the groans of the weak, I will rise up”, says the Lord. “I will bring to safety the one whom men despise”. The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried by fire, freed from dross, silver seven times refined. You, Lord, will help us and guard us from now to all eternity – while the wicked walk round outside, where the vilest are most honoured of the children of men. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Psalm 11 (12)

A prayer against the proud

Save me, Lord, for the good men are all gone: there is no-one to be trusted among the sons of men.
Neighbour speaks falsehood to neighbour: with lying lips and crooked hearts they speak.

Let the Lord condemn all lying lips, all boastful tongues.
They say “Our tongues will make us great, our lips are ours, we have no master”.

“On account of the sufferings of the poor, the groans of the weak, I will rise up”, says the Lord. “I will bring to safety the one whom men despise”.
The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried by fire, freed from dross, silver seven times refined.

You, Lord, will help us and guard us from now to all eternity –
while the wicked walk round outside, where the vilest are most honoured of the children of men.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

Reading	Hebrews 3:1 - 19 ©
All you who are holy brothers and have had the same heavenly call should turn your minds to Jesus, the apostle and the high priest of our religion. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just like Moses, who stayed faithful in all his house; but he has been found to deserve a greater glory than Moses. It is the difference between the honour given to the man that built the house and to the house itself. Every house is built by someone, of course; but God built everything that exists. It is true that Moses was faithful in the house of God, as a servant, acting as witness to the things which were to be divulged later; but Christ was faithful as a son, and as the master in the house. And we are his house, as long as we cling to our hope with the confidence that we glory in. The Holy Spirit says: If only you would listen to him today; do not harden your hearts, as happened in the Rebellion, on the Day of Temptation in the wilderness, when your ancestors challenged me and tested me, though they had seen what I could do for forty years. That was why I was angry with that generation and said: How unreliable these people who refuse to grasp my ways! And so, in anger, I swore that not one would reach the place of rest I had for them. Take care, brothers, that there is not in any one of your community a wicked mind, so unbelieving as to turn away from the living God. Every day, as long as this ‘today’ lasts, keep encouraging one another so that none of you is hardened by the lure of sin, because we shall remain co-heirs with Christ only if we keep a grasp on our first confidence right to the end. In this saying: If only you would listen to him today; do not harden your hearts, as happened in the Rebellion, those who rebelled after they had listened were all the people who were brought out of Egypt by Moses. And those who made God angry for forty years were the ones who sinned and whose dead bodies were left lying in the wilderness. Those that he swore would never reach the place of rest he had for them were those who had been disobedient. We see, then, that it was because they were unfaithful that they were not able to reach it.

Reading

Hebrews 3:1 - 19 ©

All you who are holy brothers and have had the same heavenly call should turn your minds to Jesus, the apostle and the high priest of our religion. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just like Moses, who stayed faithful in all his house; but he has been found to deserve a greater glory than Moses. It is the difference between the honour given to the man that built the house and to the house itself. Every house is built by someone, of course; but God built everything that exists. It is true that Moses was faithful in the house of God, as a servant, acting as witness to the things which were to be divulged later; but Christ was faithful as a son, and as the master in the house. And we are his house, as long as we cling to our hope with the confidence that we glory in.
The Holy Spirit says: If only you would listen to him today; do not harden your hearts, as happened in the Rebellion, on the Day of Temptation in the wilderness, when your ancestors challenged me and tested me, though they had seen what I could do for forty years. That was why I was angry with that generation and said: How unreliable these people who refuse to grasp my ways! And so, in anger, I swore that not one would reach the place of rest I had for them. Take care, brothers, that there is not in any one of your community a wicked mind, so unbelieving as to turn away from the living God. Every day, as long as this ‘today’ lasts, keep encouraging one another so that none of you is hardened by the lure of sin, because we shall remain co-heirs with Christ only if we keep a grasp on our first confidence right to the end. In this saying: If only you would listen to him today; do not harden your hearts, as happened in the Rebellion, those who rebelled after they had listened were all the people who were brought out of Egypt by Moses. And those who made God angry for forty years were the ones who sinned and whose dead bodies were left lying in the wilderness. Those that he swore would never reach the place of rest he had for them were those who had been disobedient. We see, then, that it was because they were unfaithful that they were not able to reach it.

Reading	From a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, pope
The Cross of Christ is the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces
Our understanding, which is enlightened by the Spirit of truth, should receive with purity and freedom of heart the glory of the cross as it shines in heaven and on earth. It should see with inner vision the meaning of the Lord’s words when he spoke of the imminence of his passion: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Afterward he said: Now my soul is troubled, and what am I to say? Father, save me from this hour. But it was for this that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your Son. When the voice of the Father came from heaven, saying, I have glorified him, and will glorify him again, Jesus said in reply to those around him: It was not for me that this voice spoke, but for you. Now is the judgement of the world, now will the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself. How marvellous the power of the cross; how great beyond all telling the glory of the passion: here is the judgement-seat of the Lord, the condemnation of the world, the supremacy of Christ crucified. Lord, you drew all things to yourself so that the devotion of all peoples everywhere might celebrate, in a sacrament made perfect and visible, what was carried out in the one temple of Judea under obscure foreshadowings. Now there is a more distinguished order of Levites, a greater dignity for the rank of elders, a more sacred anointing for the priesthood, because your cross is the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces. Through the cross the faithful receive strength from weakness, glory from dishonour, life from death. The different sacrifices of animals are no more: the one offering of your body and blood is the fulfilment of all the different sacrificial offerings, for you are the true Lamb of God: you take away the sins of the world. In yourself you bring to perfection all mysteries, so that, as there is one sacrifice in place of all other sacrificial offerings, there is also one kingdom gathered from all peoples. Dearly beloved, let us then acknowledge what Saint Paul, the teacher of the nations, acknowledged so exultantly: This is a saying worthy of trust, worthy of complete acceptance: Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. God’s compassion for us is all the more wonderful because Christ died, not for the righteous or the holy but for the wicked and the sinful, and, though the divine nature could not be touched by the sting of death, he took to himself, through his birth as one of us, something he could offer on our behalf. The power of his death once confronted our death. In the words of Hosea the prophet: Death, I shall be your death; grave, I shall swallow you up. By dying he submitted to the laws of the underworld; by rising again he destroyed them. He did away with the everlasting character of death so as to make death a thing of time, not of eternity. As all die in Adam, so all will be brought to life in Christ.

Reading

From a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, pope

The Cross of Christ is the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces

Our understanding, which is enlightened by the Spirit of truth, should receive with purity and freedom of heart the glory of the cross as it shines in heaven and on earth. It should see with inner vision the meaning of the Lord’s words when he spoke of the imminence of his passion: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Afterward he said: Now my soul is troubled, and what am I to say? Father, save me from this hour. But it was for this that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your Son. When the voice of the Father came from heaven, saying, I have glorified him, and will glorify him again, Jesus said in reply to those around him: It was not for me that this voice spoke, but for you. Now is the judgement of the world, now will the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself.
How marvellous the power of the cross; how great beyond all telling the glory of the passion: here is the judgement-seat of the Lord, the condemnation of the world, the supremacy of Christ crucified.
Lord, you drew all things to yourself so that the devotion of all peoples everywhere might celebrate, in a sacrament made perfect and visible, what was carried out in the one temple of Judea under obscure foreshadowings.
Now there is a more distinguished order of Levites, a greater dignity for the rank of elders, a more sacred anointing for the priesthood, because your cross is the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces. Through the cross the faithful receive strength from weakness, glory from dishonour, life from death.
The different sacrifices of animals are no more: the one offering of your body and blood is the fulfilment of all the different sacrificial offerings, for you are the true Lamb of God: you take away the sins of the world. In yourself you bring to perfection all mysteries, so that, as there is one sacrifice in place of all other sacrificial offerings, there is also one kingdom gathered from all peoples.
Dearly beloved, let us then acknowledge what Saint Paul, the teacher of the nations, acknowledged so exultantly: This is a saying worthy of trust, worthy of complete acceptance: Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.
God’s compassion for us is all the more wonderful because Christ died, not for the righteous or the holy but for the wicked and the sinful, and, though the divine nature could not be touched by the sting of death, he took to himself, through his birth as one of us, something he could offer on our behalf.
The power of his death once confronted our death. In the words of Hosea the prophet: Death, I shall be your death; grave, I shall swallow you up. By dying he submitted to the laws of the underworld; by rising again he destroyed them. He did away with the everlasting character of death so as to make death a thing of time, not of eternity. As all die in Adam, so all will be brought to life in Christ.

A concluding prayer may follow here.

American Catholic’s Saint of the Day

April 4, 2006

St. Isidore of Seville

(560?-636)

The 76 years of Isidore's life were a time of conflict and growth for the Church in Spain. The Visigoths had invaded the land a century and a half earlier and shortly before Isidore's birth they set up their own capital. They were Arians—Christians who said Christ was not God. Thus Spain was split in two: One people (Catholic Romans) struggled with another (Arian Goths).

Isidore reunited Spain, making it a center of culture and learning, a teacher and guide for other European countries whose culture was also threatened by barbarian invaders.

Born in Cartagena of a family that included three other saints, he was educated (severely) by his elder brother, whom he succeeded as bishop of Seville.

An amazingly learned man, he was sometimes called "The Schoolmaster of the Middle Ages" because the encyclopedia he wrote was used as a textbook for nine centuries. He required seminaries to be built in every diocese, wrote a Rule for religious orders and founded schools that taught every branch of learning. Isidore wrote numerous books, including a dictionary, an encyclopedia, a history of Goths and a history of the world—beginning with creation! He completed the Mozarabic liturgy, which is still in use in Toledo, Spain. For all these reasons Isidore (as well as several other saints) has been suggested as patron of the Internet.

He continued his austerities even as he approached 80. During the last six months of his life, he increased his charities so much that his house was crowded from morning till night with the poor of the countryside.

Comment:

Our country can well use Isidore's spirit of combining learning and holiness. Loving, understanding knowledge can heal and bring a broken people back together. We are not barbarians like the invaders of Isidore's Spain. But people who are swamped by riches and overwhelmed by scientific and technological advances can lose much of their understanding love for one another. So vast was Isidore's knowledge that some moderns have proposed him as the patron of Internet users.

Catholic Culture

Collect:
Lord, hear the prayers we offer in commemoration of St. Isidore. May your Church learn from his teaching and benefit from his intercession. 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.

Activities:

Prayers:

April 04, 2006

Optional Memorial of St. Isidore, bishop and doctor

Old Calendar: St. Isidore

St. Isidore, who succeeded his brother St. Leander as Archbishop of Seville, was one of the great bishops of the seventh century. He was proficient in all brances of knowledge and was regarded as one of the most learned men of his time; with Cassiodorus and Boethius he was one of the thinkers whose writings were most studied in the Middle Ages, St. Isidore died in 636. Pope Innocent XIII canonized him in 1722 and proclaimed him a Doctor of the Church.

St. Isidore of Seville
Isidore, archbishop of Seville and brother of the saintly Bishop Leander, ranks as the most outstanding person in the Church of Spain during the seventh century. Because of the singular holiness of his life, he was idolized by the people. Wherever he appeared, throngs gathered about him. "Some came to see the miracles that he performed in the name of the Lord. The sick came to be freed from their sufferings, for the power of God emanated from him and he would heal them all" (Bollandists: April 1, 340).

He is regarded as the great restorer of the Spanish Church after the Visigoths returned to the Catholic faith. He also contributed greatly to the development of Spain's liturgy. He presided over the fourth provincial council of Toledo (633), the most important in Spanish history. Rich in merit, he died in 636 after ruling his see 40 years. St. Gregory the Great was one of his personal friends.

Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch.

Patron: Computer technicians; computer users; computers; the Internet; schoolchildren; students.

Symbols: Bees; bishop holding a pen while surrounded by a swarm of bees; bishop standing near a beehive; old bishop with a prince at his feet; pen; priest or bishop with pen and book; with Saint Leander, Saint Fulgentius, and Saint Florentina; with his Etymologia.

St. Isidore of Seville, Doctor of the Catholic Church (more information here!

ST ISIDORE IS THE EDUCATIONAL DOCTOR. IN CHURCH LANGUAGE, HE IS THE SCHOOLMASTER OF THE MIDDLE AGES. THIS SAINT WROTE AN ENTIRE ENCYCLOPEDIA USED AS A TEXTBOOK FOR 900 YEARS AND A HISTORY OF THE WORLD. ISIDORE YEARNED TO LEARN TO BECOME HOLY AND SHARE HIS GIFTS AND KNOWLEDGE WITH THE UNEDUCATED, THOSE DESIRING TO LEARN MORE AND THOSE WHO NEEDED TO BE REEDUCATED DUE TO IGNORANCE OR MISCONCEPTIONS.

ISIDORE COMBINED HOLINESS WITH LEARNING AND PRACTICED IT DAILY. HE KNEW THAT LEARNING WITHOUT HOLINESS WOULD LEAD TO PRIDE AND PAIN IN THE SOUL. HE USED HIS HOME FROM SUNRISE TO SUNSET TO TEACH AND MINISTERED TO THE POOR, SINNERS AND THE UNEDUCATED. THIS HOLY MAN KNEW THAT SINS CAN CLOUD THE MIND WITH ERRONEOUS THINKING AND THAT ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE CAN DISPEL IGNORANCE AND GUIDE ONE'S INTELLIGENCE TO A HIGHER CLARITY AND INSIGHT INTO THE THINGS OF GOD AND HUMANKIND.

St Isidore, 560-636. Doctor of Education, Feast April 4th

For all who have been discouraged as a student, failed in their studies or dropped out of school, St Isidore can identify with you. These three setbacks and disappointments in the learning process happened to him and to many thousands of us today. That is an excellent reason to turn to Isidore in petition to gain strength and courage to use one's mind to fullest potential.

When you yearn to learn and to be holy, no doctor is gifted to lead you more than this saint. The educational doctor will exceed your expectations, needs or desires. When you humbly and imploringly beseech God to guide you in holy knowledge and understanding through Isidore's intercession, you can be assured of his help.

Isidore knew the value and difference between learning and education. He grasped their connection through grace-God’s way of knowing. If we have jeopardized, minimized or overlooked our opportunity to learn, we might turn to God through Isidore. We can be assured of his assistance because he has given us an example through his extraordinary modeling. He was a master on how to love God through learning and supported others to be educated. That isn’t always easy. Why? Strange as it may sound, knowledge doesn’t always lead us to God or holiness.

The gift of knowledge is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit but that gift is not something that we merit or gain only through intellectual endeavor. It is above all a gift from God. The gift of knowledge is not discursive. It is intuitive; it has the divine character proper to the action of the Holy Spirit. It gives us an insight into the mysterious relationships between creatures and Creator. For more information about this gift and subject read True Devotion to Holy Spirit (formerly called The Sanctifier ) by Luis M. Martinez, by Sophia Press: Recommended by Fr Benedict Groeschel and the late John Cardinal O'Connor. To order the book go to:

http://www.doctorsofthecatholicchurch.com/I.html

Lauds -- Morning Prayer

Morning Prayer (Lauds)

If this is the first Hour that you are reciting today, you should precede it with the Invitatory Psalm.

O God, come to my aid.
O Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

A suitable hymn may be inserted at this point.

Psalm 94 (95)
A call to worship
Come, let us rejoice in the Lord, let us acclaim God our salvation. Let us come before him proclaiming our thanks, let us acclaim him with songs. For the Lord is a great God, a king above all gods. For he holds the depths of the earth in his hands, and the peaks of the mountains are his. For the sea is his: he made it; and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down, bend the knee before the Lord who made us; for he himself is our God and we are his flock, the sheep that follow his hand. If only, today, you would listen to his voice: “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, on the day of Massah in the desert, when your fathers tested me – they put me to the test, although they had seen my works”. “For forty years they wearied me, that generation. I said: their hearts are wandering, they do not know my paths. I swore in my anger: they will never enter my place of rest”. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Psalm 94 (95)

A call to worship

Come, let us rejoice in the Lord, let us acclaim God our salvation.
Let us come before him proclaiming our thanks, let us acclaim him with songs.

For the Lord is a great God, a king above all gods.
For he holds the depths of the earth in his hands, and the peaks of the mountains are his.
For the sea is his: he made it; and his hands formed the dry land.

Come, let us worship and bow down, bend the knee before the Lord who made us;
for he himself is our God and we are his flock, the sheep that follow his hand.

If only, today, you would listen to his voice: “Do not harden your hearts
as you did at Meribah, on the day of Massah in the desert, when your fathers tested me –
they put me to the test, although they had seen my works”.

“For forty years they wearied me, that generation.
I said: their hearts are wandering, they do not know my paths.
I swore in my anger: they will never enter my place of rest”.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

Canticle	Tobit 13
God punishes and saves
Blessed be God who lives for ever, whose kingdom is eternal: for he both punishes and takes pity, he leads down to the underworld, and rescues from perdition; no one can escape him. Give thanks to him before all nations, children of Israel: he scattered you among them, and there he has made known his greatness. Give glory to him before all who live: he is our Lord, our father, and our God for ever. He will punish you for your transgressions; but he will take pity on all your sufferings, and gather you together from all the nations among whom he scattered you. If you turn back to him with all your heart and soul – if you keep faithful to him – he will turn back to you and hide his face no longer. So now look at what he has done with you, and praise him with all your might. Bless the Lord of justice, and glorify the eternal King. In the land of my captivity I trust in him; I show his power and majesty to the sinful people. Turn back, sinners, and be upright in his presence – perhaps he will forgive you and show you his favour. I will rejoice in the Lord with all my soul, my soul will rejoice as long as it lives. Bless the Lord, all his chosen ones: all people, praise his greatness. Fill your days with joy and proclaim his glory. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Canticle

Tobit 13

God punishes and saves

Blessed be God who lives for ever, whose kingdom is eternal:
for he both punishes and takes pity,
he leads down to the underworld, and rescues from perdition;
no one can escape him.

Give thanks to him before all nations, children of Israel: he scattered you among them, and there he has made known his greatness.
Give glory to him before all who live: he is our Lord, our father, and our God for ever.

He will punish you for your transgressions; but he will take pity on all your sufferings, and gather you together from all the nations among whom he scattered you.
If you turn back to him with all your heart and soul – if you keep faithful to him – he will turn back to you and hide his face no longer.

So now look at what he has done with you, and praise him with all your might.
Bless the Lord of justice, and glorify the eternal King.

In the land of my captivity I trust in him; I show his power and majesty to the sinful people.
Turn back, sinners, and be upright in his presence – perhaps he will forgive you and show you his favour.

I will rejoice in the Lord with all my soul, my soul will rejoice as long as it lives.
Bless the Lord, all his chosen ones: all people, praise his greatness.
Fill your days with joy and proclaim his glory.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

Psalm 32 (33)
The Lord provides
Rejoice in the Lord, you just: it is good for the upright to praise him. Proclaim the Lord on the lyre, play his song on the ten-stringed harp. Sing a new song to the Lord, sing out your cries of triumph, for the word of the Lord is truly just, and all his actions are faithful. The Lord loves justice and right judgement; the earth is full of his loving kindness. By the Lord’s word the heavens were made, and all their array by the breath of his mouth. He gathered the seas as if in a bag, he stored up the depths in his treasury. Let every land fear the Lord, let all the world be awed at his presence. For he spoke, and they came into being; he commanded, and they were made. The Lord confounds the counsel of the nations, throws the thoughts of the peoples into confusion. But the Lord’s own counsel stands firm for ever, his thoughts last for all generations. Happy the nation whose lord is God, the people he has chosen as his inheritance. The Lord looks down from the heavens and sees all the children of men. From his dwelling-place he looks upon all who inhabit the earth. He moulded each one of their hearts, he understands all that they do. The king will not be saved by his forces; the abundance of his strength will not set the strong man free. Do not trust a horse to save you, whatever its swiftness and strength. For see, the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, upon those who trust in his mercy, hoping he will save their souls from death and their bodies from hunger. Our souls praise the Lord, for he is our help and our protector, for our hearts rejoice in him, and we trust in his holy name. Lord, show us your loving kindness, just as we put our hope in you. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Psalm 32 (33)

The Lord provides

Rejoice in the Lord, you just: it is good for the upright to praise him.
Proclaim the Lord on the lyre, play his song on the ten-stringed harp.
Sing a new song to the Lord, sing out your cries of triumph,
for the word of the Lord is truly just, and all his actions are faithful.
The Lord loves justice and right judgement; the earth is full of his loving kindness.
By the Lord’s word the heavens were made, and all their array by the breath of his mouth.
He gathered the seas as if in a bag, he stored up the depths in his treasury.

Let every land fear the Lord, let all the world be awed at his presence.
For he spoke, and they came into being; he commanded, and they were made.
The Lord confounds the counsel of the nations, throws the thoughts of the peoples into confusion.
But the Lord’s own counsel stands firm for ever, his thoughts last for all generations.

Happy the nation whose lord is God, the people he has chosen as his inheritance.
The Lord looks down from the heavens and sees all the children of men.
From his dwelling-place he looks upon all who inhabit the earth.
He moulded each one of their hearts, he understands all that they do.

The king will not be saved by his forces; the abundance of his strength will not set the strong man free.
Do not trust a horse to save you, whatever its swiftness and strength.
For see, the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, upon those who trust in his mercy,
hoping he will save their souls from death and their bodies from hunger.

Our souls praise the Lord, for he is our help and our protector,
for our hearts rejoice in him, and we trust in his holy name.
Lord, show us your loving kindness, just as we put our hope in you.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

A short Bible reading and responsory may follow here.

Canticle	Benedictus
The Messiah and his forerunner
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has come to his people and brought about their redemption. He has raised up the sign of salvation in the house of his servant David, as he promised through the mouth of the holy ones, his prophets through the ages: to rescue us from our enemies and all who hate us, to take pity on our fathers, to remember his holy covenant and the oath he swore to Abraham our father, that he would give himself to us, that we could serve him without fear – freed from the hands of our enemies – in uprightness and holiness before him, for all of our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High: for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his path, to let his people know their salvation, so that their sins may be forgiven. Through the bottomless mercy of our God, one born on high will visit us to give light to those who walk in darkness, who live in the shadow of death; to lead our feet in the path of peace. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Canticle

Benedictus

The Messiah and his forerunner

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has come to his people and brought about their redemption.
He has raised up the sign of salvation in the house of his servant David,
as he promised through the mouth of the holy ones, his prophets through the ages:
to rescue us from our enemies and all who hate us, to take pity on our fathers,
to remember his holy covenant and the oath he swore to Abraham our father,
that he would give himself to us, that we could serve him without fear – freed from the hands of our enemies –
in uprightness and holiness before him, for all of our days.

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High: for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his path,
to let his people know their salvation, so that their sins may be forgiven.
Through the bottomless mercy of our God, one born on high will visit us
to give light to those who walk in darkness, who live in the shadow of death;
to lead our feet in the path of peace.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

Some short prayers may follow here, to offer up the day's work to God.

Our Father, who art in Heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those that trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

A concluding prayer may follow here.

May the Lord bless us and keep us from all harm; and may he lead us to eternal life.

A M E N

>a href="http://regnumchristi.org/english/articulos/articulo.phtml?rc=se-39_ca-95_te-60_id-14717">Regnum Chrisiti

"I AM"
April 4, 2006

The divine name, in Greek “Ego eimi,” evokes power, presence, and love.

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Father Steven Reilly, LC

John 8:21-30
Jesus said to the Pharisees: "I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come." So the Jews said, "He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, ´Where I am going you cannot come´?" He said to them, "You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins." So they said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "What I told you from the beginning. I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world." They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father. So Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him." Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

Introductory Prayer: Father in heaven, the sacred time of your Son’s passion and death draws near. Help me to pray intensely, so that I can receive the many graces you have prepared for me.

Petition: Lord, increase my faith and trust.

1. Ego Eimi: “I Am.” When Moses stood marveling at the burning bush, he was simultaneously dreading the prospect of the mission God was giving him. How could he be prophet and a liberator unless he knew God’s name? “This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). The divine name, in Greek “Ego eimi,” evokes power, presence, and love. It gave Moses the confidence to go back to Egypt for the fateful showdown with the Pharaoh. So too for us: Jesus’ use of the divine name, while scandalous for his enemies, is a life-giving word for us. Through faith, we experience the opposite effect of Jesus’ warning about unbelief: “If you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins” We believe in the “I AM” of Jesus; we have found life in his name.

2. God’s Weakness Is Greater Than Man’s Strength. "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM.” In the Gospel of John, “lifting up” refers to the crucifixion. We could translate: When you crucify me, you’ll realize that I am God. That word is certainly fulfilled in the faith we have today. As we prepare for Holy Week, we contemplate Jesus’ love for us driving him to embrace the wood of the cross out of love for us. Who, except God, could be capable of such infinite love displayed in almost infinite “weakness”?

3. “Many Came to Believe in Him.” The “I AM” of Jesus draws forth a response of faith. The contemplation of Jesus is vital for our spiritual lives. We want to believe, but we must continually nurture our faith. St Thomas Aquinas once remarked how he learned more from looking at the crucifix than from all the books he had ever read. Let’s strive to make this Holy Week one in which our faith takes a leap forward.

Dialogue with Christ: Lord Jesus, you are my God and I worship you. I look at the crucifix and I am reminded that when you are the weakest, your divine love shines through most intensely. Thank you for being “lifted up” for love of me!

Resolution: I will accept without complaint any and every inconvenience I experience today, in gratitude to Jesus.

Connection with Greek background on medical symbols and mythology:

Raphael the Archangel Healing Tobias

Interestingly, the graphic at the top is called 'The Sign Of Aesculapius'.

It is the symbol of the medical profession, and was patterned after this story of the saraph.

Asclepius

Asclepius ( Latin: Aesculapius ) was the mythical ancient Greek god of healing and a famous physician. His parents were the god Apollo and Coronis, a princess of Thessaly who died while Asclepius was still a child. Apollo entrusted the child's education to Chiron, a centaur (half man - half horse) and son of Chronus. Most of the centaurs were savage but Chiron was wise, civilised and kindly and famous for his knowledge of archery, medicine, music and prophesy.

Chiron educated Asclepius in the healing arts. Eventually, Asclepius became so skilled in surgery and the use of healing medicinal plants that he could even restore the dead to life, which angered Hades, ruler of the dead. Hades complained to Zeus, ruler of all the gods, who killed Asclepius with a thunderbolt. The children of Asclepius included his daughters Hygeia and Panacea who were symbols of health and healing respectively.

Two of the sons of Asclepius appeared in Homer's Illiad as physicians in the Greek army. Their supposed descendents formed the Asclepiadae, a large order of priest physicians who controlled the sacred secrets of healing, which were passed from father to son and practiced in temples of health called Asclepieia. The dreams of patients were interpreted by the Asclepiadae to find the method of treatment.

An example of the staff of Asclepius used in the arms of the Royal Society of Medicine.

Asclepius is traditionally represented holding a staff with his sacred serpent coiled around it, (example: above) symbolizing renewal of youth as the serpent casts off its skin. The similar symbol of a staff with two snakes and surmounted by wings, (example: lower) widely used by the medical profession is actually the caduceus or wand of Hermes, messenger of the gods and protector of merchants and thieves. This seems to have replaced the staff of Asclepius as a symbol for the medical profession, probably for aesthetic reasons because of the symmetry of the wand of Hermes.

An example of the staff of Hermes used as a symbol of health care.

Aesculapius and Hygeia

According to Greek myth, Aesculapius, god of healing, was abandoned as a baby on a hillside. He survived by suckling from a nanny goat and was protected by a guard dog. He was rescued by a shepherd attracted by the baby’s dazzling aura, enhanced here by the bright white coverlet on which he lies.

Tognolli emphasises the nurturing qualities of the goat and the watchfulness of the dog. In the foreground a snake winds itself around a branch in a natural allusion to the symbol of Aesculapius and medicine itself.

Tognolli, before teaching at the British Academy in Rome, worked as a draughtsman in the studio of the leading neo-classical sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822). There he may have met the Liverpool born but Rome-based William Earle (1760-1839), the first owner of this painting.

Perhaps St Raphael is the connection?

Raphael the Archangel Healing Tobias

Arch Angel Raphael hog ties demon of lust, Asmodeus. Perhaps there's a connection with the demon's captivity in Egypt considering the Holy Family went there to hide from Herod (who was also a captive of lust).

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