Posted on 09/20/2006 10:05:51 AM PDT by Salvation
Memorial of Saint Andrew Kim Taegon, priest and martyr, and Saint Paul Chong Hasang, martyr, and their companions, martyrs
Reading 1
1 Cor 12:31-13:13
Brothers and sisters:
Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.
But I shall show you a still more excellent way.
If I speak in human and angelic tongues
but do not have love,
I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy
and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge;
if I have all faith so as to move mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own,
and if I hand my body over so that I may boast
but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, love is not pompous,
it is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing
but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.
If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing;
if tongues, they will cease;
if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.
For we know partially and we prophesy partially,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I used to talk as a child,
think as a child, reason as a child;
when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,
but then face to face.
At present I know partially;
then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 33:2-3, 4-5, 12 and 22
R. (12) Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Give thanks to the LORDon the harp;
with the ten.stringed lyre chant his praises.
Sing to him a new song;
pluck the strings skillfully, with shouts of gladness.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
For upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Gospel
Lk 7:31-35
Jesus said to the crowds:
“To what shall I compare the people of this generation?
What are they like?
They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance.
We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.’
For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine,
and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’
The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said,
‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’
But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”
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Korean martyrs here. I didn't know if you would like to do a ping or not??
From: 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13
[31] But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you still a
more excellent way.
Hymn to Charity
From: Luke 7:31-35
Jesus Reproaches His Contemporaries
| First reading | 1 Corinthians 12:31 - 13:13 © |
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| Be ambitious for the higher gifts. And I am going to show you a way that is better than any of them. If I have all the eloquence of men or of angels, but speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything, and if I have faith in all its fulness, to move mountains, but without love, then I am nothing at all. If I give away all that I possess, piece by piece, and if I even let them take my body to burn it, but am without love, it will do me no good whatever. Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes. Love does not come to an end. But if there are gifts of prophecy, the time will come when they must fail; or the gift of languages, it will not continue for ever; and knowledge – for this, too, the time will come when it must fail. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophesying is imperfect; but once perfection comes, all imperfect things will disappear. When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, and think like a child, and argue like a child, but now I am a man, all childish ways are put behind me. Now we are seeing a dim reflection in a mirror; but then we shall be seeing face to face. The knowledge that I have now is imperfect; but then I shall know as fully as I am known. In short, there are three things that last: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love. |
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| Psalm or canticle: Psalm 32 |
| Gospel | Luke 7:31 - 35 © |
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| Jesus said: ‘What description can I find for the men of this generation? What are they like? They are like children shouting to one another while they sit in the market place: “We played the pipes for you, and you wouldn’t dance; we sang dirges, and you wouldn’t cry”. ‘For John the Baptist comes, not eating bread, not drinking wine, and you say, “He is possessed”. The Son of Man comes, eating and drinking, and you say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners”. Yet Wisdom has been proved right by all her children.’ |
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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. Alleluia.
A suitable hymn may be inserted at this point.
| Psalm 102 (103) |
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| Praise of the compassionate Lord |
| My soul, bless the Lord! All that is in me, bless his holy name. My soul, bless the Lord! Never forget all he has done for you. The Lord, who forgives your wrongdoing, who heals all your weaknesses. The Lord, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with kindness and compassion. The Lord, who fills your age with good things, who renews your youth like an eagle’s. The Lord, who gives fair judgements, who gives judgement in favour of the oppressed. 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 102 (103) |
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| The Lord is compassion and kindness, full of patience, full of mercy. He will not fight against you for ever: he will not always be angry. He does not treat us as our sins deserve; he does not pay us back for our wrongdoing. As high as the sky above the earth, so great is his kindness to those who fear him. As far as east is from west, so far he has put our wrongdoing from us. As a father cares for his children, so the Lord cares for those who fear him. For he knows how we are made, he remembers we are nothing but dust. Man – his life is like grass, he blossoms and withers like flowers of the field. The wind blows and carries him away: no trace of him remains. 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 102 (103) |
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| The Lord has been kind from the beginning; to those who fear him his kindness lasts for ever. His justice is for their children’s children, for those who keep his covenant, for those who remember his commandments and try to perform them. The Lord’s throne is high in the heavens and his rule shall extend over all. Bless the Lord, all his angels, strong in your strength, doers of his command, bless him as you hear his words. Bless the Lord, all his powers, his servants who do his will. Bless the Lord, all he has created, in every place that he rules. My soul, bless the Lord! 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 | Ezekiel 10:18 - 11:25 © |
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| The glory of the Lord came out from the Temple threshold and paused over the cherubs. The cherubs spread their wings and rose from the ground to leave, and as I watched the wheels rose with them. They paused at the entrance to the east gate of the Temple of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them. This was the creature that I had seen supporting the God of Israel beside the river Chebar, and I was now certain that these were cherubs. Each had four faces and four wings and what seemed to be human hands under their wings. Their faces were just as I had seen them beside the river Chebar. Each moved straight forward. The word of the Lord was then addressed to me as follows, ‘Son of man, your brothers, your kinsmen, the whole House of Israel, these are told by the citizens of Jerusalem, “You have been sent away from the Lord; it is to us that the land was given as our domain”. Say therefore, “The Lord says this: Yes, I have sent them far away among the nations and I have dispersed them to foreign countries; and for a while I have been a sanctuary for them in the country to which they have gone”. Then say, “The Lord says this: I will gather you together from the peoples, I will bring you all back from the countries where you have been scattered and I will give you the land of Israel. They will come and will purge it of all the horrors and the filthy practices. I will give them a single heart and I will put a new spirit in them; I will remove the heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh instead, so that they will keep my laws and respect my observances and put them into practice. Then they shall be my people and I will be their God. But those whose hearts are set on their idols and their filthy practices I will call to account for their conduct – it is the Lord who speaks.”’ The cherubs then spread their wings and the wheels began to move with them, while the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them. And the glory of the Lord rose to leave the city and paused on the mountain to the east of the city. The spirit lifted me up in vision, in the spirit of God, and took me to the Chaldaeans, away to the exiles, and so the vision I had seen faded; and then I told the exiles everything that the Lord had shown me. |
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A second reading should come here, from the lives of the saints or the writings of the Fathers of the Church, but the reading for today has not yet been added to the Universalis database. Please be patient. One day all readings will be here.
| A concluding prayer may follow here. |
I don't think it can be posted here for copyright reasons (and I would have to type it in anyway), but the breviary reading for today from the letters of St. Andrew Kim Taegon is one of the most heart-rendingly beautiful pieces of Christian literature I've ever read. If you have the Office of Readings on your bookshelf or in your parish library, give it a look.
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God calls each one of us to be a saint.
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September 20, 2006
Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang and Companions
(1821-1846)
This first native Korean priest was the son of Korean converts. His father, Ignatius Kim, was martyred during the persecution of 1839 and was beatified in 1925. After Baptism at the age of 15, Andrew traveled 1,300 miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back home again, he was assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would elude the border patrol. He was arrested, tortured and finally beheaded at the Han River near Seoul, the capital.
Paul Chong Hasang was a seminarian, aged 45. Christianity came to Korea during the Japanese invasion in 1592 when some Koreans were baptized, probably by Christian Japanese soldiers. Evangelization was difficult because Korea refused all contact with the outside world except for an annual journey to Peking to pay taxes. On one of these occasions, around 1777, Christian literature obtained from Jesuits in China led educated Korean Christians to study. A home Church began. When a Chinese priest managed to enter secretly a dozen years later, he found 4,000 Catholics, none of whom had ever seen a priest. Seven years later there were 10,000 Catholics. Religious freedom came in 1883. When Pope John Paul II visited Korea in 1984 he canonized, besides Andrew and Paul, 98 Koreans and three French missionaries who had been martyred between 1839 and 1867. Among them were bishops and priests, but for the most part they were lay persons: 47 women, 45 men. Among the martyrs in 1839 was Columba Kim, an unmarried woman of 26. She was put in prison, pierced with hot tools and seared with burning coals. She and her sister Agnes were disrobed and kept for two days in a cell with condemned criminals, but were not molested. After Columba complained about the indignity, no more women were subjected to it. The two were beheaded. A boy of 13, Peter Ryou, had his flesh so badly torn that he could pull off pieces and throw them at the judges. He was killed by strangulation. Protase Chong, a 41-year-old noble, apostatized under torture and was freed. Later he came back, confessed his faith and was tortured to death. Quote:
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| Wednesday, September 20, 2006 Sts. Andrew Kim Taegon, Priest, Martyr, Paul Chong Hasang, Martyr and Their Companions, Martyrs (Memorial) |
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I wonder if that will be the second reading they post today?
Father Andrew Kim's Letter from prison to his poeple
To the Faithful,
My friend, consider and consider again. Consider how God, even before the beginning of the time, has created everything that exists. Consider why Hw has created humans in His own image and put them in this world. When you think of this world there is much to make us sad and miserabe. For those born into this dangerous and wretched world,who do not know the one who made us, there is no point or meaning to existence. This is the true even for us who have benn born by the grace of God, by His grace called to the Church, to be his disciple through baptism and so receive a precious name. If after receiving this gracewe sin against the Lord, of what use is the name? Not only are birth and baptism futile, we have actually betrayed God and His grace.
Consider the farmer sowing his seed. When the time is right, he ploughs and fertilizes his field, heedless of his soil in the heat. For he knows that by careful cultivation his seed will produce crops. In joyful harvesting he will forget the sweat he has had to pour out. If at harvest time if there are no crops but only empty husks, the owner, remembering his sweat and hard work and wasted fertilizer, will curse that field. So it is that the Lord regards the world as his field and is as his seedlings. He fertilizes us with grace and waters us with the blood od the Savior that we might grow and produce grain. At the judgement, at the harvest time, those who produce the fruits of grace will be justified and the others will receive just punishment.
My beloved brother and sisters,
Our Lord Jesu came into the world and personally suffered countless torments, establishing the Church amid suffering. After Jesus' Ascension, from the time of the apostles to the present, the world has been attacking the Church. However, the world cannot defeat the Church. The Church will continue to grow in the midst of hardship. In the fifty or sixty years since the Chuech came to Korea, the faithful have suffered several waves of persecutions. And now somw of us are imprisoned and you are all greatly troubled. However, while we remain united in spirit there is no need for lamentation nor fear of being parted in the flesh. As the Scriptures tell us, the Lord knows enven the number of hairs on our head, nothing escapes his eyes. So this persecution is life-giving. The Lord rewards, he does not punish. By following the will of God and standing firmly on the side of Jesus, we ensure the defeat of the world and the devil.
In these troubled times do not be downhearted, but fight to ein iwth all your strength like a brave soldier armed for battle.
As you wait for the Lord in his mercy ti remove these hardships do not forget to love and help others. Whatever happens, be patient, seek always eternal glory and be very, very cautious.
The twenty of us here are faring well in the Lord's grace. If we are to die, I beg you not to forget our families. I have much to say but I cannot find the words. So I will end.
We will soon be going out to the battlefield. Take good care and let us meet again in heaven. I love you and cannot forget you. I beg you, in these troubled times do not be led astray. Pray to the Lord day and night to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil. Be steadfast in persecution, put eternal glory first and work for the salvation of your souls.
The Lord is testing us through this persecution. We need to grow in merit by defeating the world and the devil. Do not weaken under the pressure of misfortune. On the contrary, following the footsteps od the saints, bring greater glory to the Church by being loyal soldiers and upright people of God. Although your are many be of one mind, not forgetting to love. Be patient and compassionate as you await the Lord's day of mercy.
I have much to say but this is not the place for it. I earnestly pray that we will all meet again in Heaven. I send you a loving kiss.
Kim Dae-gon Andrew (signed)
Recipes:
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September 20, 2006    Memorial of St. Andrew Kim, priest and martyr, St. Paul Chong, martyr, and Companions, martyrs Old Calendar: St. Eustace and His Companions, martyrs
Before the reform of the General Roman Calendar today was the feast of St. Eustace and His Companions. He was a martyr whose cult was introduced at Rome in the early Middle Ages.
St. Andrew Kim Taegon and St. Paul Chong Hasang and their companions  This first native Korean priest was the son of Korean converts. His father, Ignatius Kim, was martyred during the persecution of 1839 and was beatified in 1925. After baptism at the age of fifteen, Andrew traveled thirteen hundred miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back home again, he was assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would elude the border patrol. He was arrested, tortured and finally beheaded at the Han River near Seoul, the capital. Paul Chong Hasang was a lay apostle and married man, aged forty-five. Christianity came to Korea during the Japanese invasion in 1592 when some Koreans were baptized, probably by Christian Japanese soldiers. Evangelization was difficult because Korea refused all contact with the outside world except for an annual journey to Beijing to pay taxes. On one of these occasions, around 1777, Christian literature obtained from Jesuits in China led educated Korean Christians to study. A home church began. When a Chinese priest managed to enter secretly a dozen years later, he found four thousand Catholics, none of whom had ever seen a priest. Seven years later there were ten thousand Catholics. Religious freedom came in 1883. When Pope John Paul II visited Korea in 1984, he canonized Andrew, Paul, ninety-eight Koreans and three French missionaries who had been martyred between 1839 and 1867. Among them were bishops and priests, but for the most part they were laypersons: forty-seven women, forty-five men.
Today there are approximately four million Catholics in Korea. Excerpted from the Saint of the Day, Leonard Foley, O.F.M. Patron: Korean clergy. Symbols: Palm frond (for martyrdom); martyr's crown. Things to Do:
St. Eustace and His Companions  The charming legend of Saint Eustace tells how a Roman general named Placidus was once out hunting. He pursued a noble stag, which suddenly turned and approached him. Between the stag's antlers Placidus saw a crucifix. A voice was calling him by name. The hunter himself had been caught. The vision converted Placidus. He changed his name to Eustace, and gave away much of his money. The saint still felt able to serve the Roman emperor. Taking up his command again, he led the legions to great victories. By this time his family had become Christian too, and all four of them — Eustace, his wife Theopista, and his sons Agapetus and Theopestus — refused to make sacrifices to pagan gods in the celebrations following his own victories. All four were accordingly put to death in a bizarre fashion. They were taken to the colosseum in Rome, encased in a bronze bull, and roasted to death. Although these events are supposed to have taken place around the year 118, no account of Saint Eustace and his family has been found prior to the seventh century. Yet he became one of the most popular saints in the middle ages, celebrated in prose and poetry as well as in art and popular devotion. Eustace is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, and he is venerated as the patron of hunters. Excerpted from the A Calendar of Saints by James Bentley Patron: against fire; difficult situations; firefighters; hunters; Madrid; torture victims; family troubles. Symbols: crucifix; stag; oven; white stag on a rock, with a crucifix between antlers; boar spear; hunter's horn; lion; Roman armour; bear, wolf or dog; wicker basket; brazen bull with a fire under it. |
My Office of Readings was printed in 1983 which I picked it up before I became Catholic. The reading today is from St. Augustine' Sermo 46, On Pastors. Here it is:
I have explained what it means to consume milk. Now let us consider what it means to clothe with wool. One who gives milk gives sustenance, while one who gives wool gives honor. These are precisely the two things that pastors, who feed themselves and not the sheep, look for from the people—the benefit of having their wants supplied as well as the favor of honor and praise.Yes, clothing can well be taken to mean honor, since it covers nakedness. For every man without exception is weak. And who is any man placed over you except someone just like yourself. Your past is in the flesh, he is mortal, he eats, sleeps and awakens; he was born and he is going to die. In himself he is, when you think of it, simply a man. But it is true that you make him something more by giving him honor; it is as if you were covering what is weak.
Consider the nature of the clothing that the apostle Paul received from God's good people. He said: You have received me like an angel of God. I testify that if it were possible you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. Indeed great honor was shown to him. But did he then spare sinners becuase of that honor, perhaps out of fear that it would be refused and that he would receive less praise when he gave blame? Had he done so, he would be among those shepherds who feed themselves and not the sheep. He would then say to himself: "What has this to do with me? Let everyone do what he will; my sustenance is safe, and my honor too. I have enough milk and wool, so let each one do as he likes." But then are things really secure for you if each one does as he pleases? I do not want to make you a leader over th epeople but one of them. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with him.
In recalling how they treated him, the Apostle does not want to appear forgetful of the honor they did him. Therefore he gives testimony that they recived him like an angel of God, that if it were possible, they were willing to tear out their eyes and give them to him. Yet he still comes to the sheep that is ill, to the one that is diseased, to cut the wound and not to spare the diseased part. He says: Have I then become your enemy by preaching the truth? He took from the milk of the sheep, as I mentioned a short time ago, and he was clothed with their wool, but he did not neglect his sheep. He did not seek what was his but what was Christ's.
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Perpetually Dissatisfied Wednesday of the 24th Week in Ordinary Time Luke 7:31-35 Introductory Prayer: Eternal God, prayer is your gift to me. I believe that you give me complete and unlimited access to your power and mercy. I want to value this gift of prayer above all things. I renew my faith, hope and love for you as I begin this meditation. Petition: Holy Spirit, enlighten my mind and move my heart. 1. Endless Excuses. Some very good and religious people in Jesus’ day complained about John the Baptist, precursor of the Messiah, because of his austere lifestyle. “He must be crazy,” they said. They also complained about Jesus’ apparently excessive liberality with sinners and nonbelievers. The habit of constantly sifting reality through our own preconceptions can lead us to reject the things of God. This is the opposite of faith. It is even the opposite of the healthy exercise of reason, becoming a limiting rationalism. Rather than seeking to place God neatly in our own self-created and prearranged world, we need to let ourselves be shaped by God’s standards. 2. Fickleness. Spiritual fickleness inevitably leads us to reject God. The inability to follow through on a particular spiritual path necessarily leaves us midcourse and far from the goal. It does not matter so much whether we follow the austerity of the disciple John or the apparent liberality of Jesus’ disciples. What matters is that we follow completely through to completion whatever particular path God has given us. As long as we move, God can guide our steps. If we don’t move, there is nothing to guide. Waiting around for the mythical “perfect conditions” is in reality capriciousness and an unwillingness to commit. 3. Wisdom. Wisdom is a gift of the Holy Spirit by which we are able to see and comprehend divine and human realities from God’s perspective. Wisdom leads to equilibrium and balance in our judgments and assessments. We prepare for this gift by our effort to make good decisions and live by them. The supernatural gifts build upon the human virtues. Dialogue with Christ: Lord Jesus, I am indebted to you for your teaching and for your example. Help me to learn from your life and example, and keep me from ever dismissing them as irrelevant. Resolution: I will avoid any fickleness today with regards the path which God has called me to follow. |
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. Alleluia.
A suitable hymn may be inserted at this point.
| Psalm 107 (108) |
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| Praise of the Lord and a plea for help |
| My heart is ready, O God – my heart is ready. I shall sing and make music. Awake, my glory! Rise up, harp and lyre! We will awaken the dawn. I will proclaim you to the peoples, O Lord, sing of you to the nations: for your kindness is great, it reaches the heavens; great is your faithfulness, high as the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory stretch over the earth. Give deliverance to your beloved, let your right hand bring safety – answer my prayer! God has spoken from his holy place: “I shall triumph, dividing Shechem, measuring off the vale of Succoth. Gilead is mine, mine is Manasseh; Ephraim my helmet, Judah my sceptre. But Moab shall be my wash-basin, on Edom I will place my sandal; I will cry in triumph over the Philistine”. Who shall lead me to the fortified city? Who shall lead me to Edom? Surely you, God – although you rejected us. Will you not come out, O God, with our armies? Give us help in our troubles, for vain is the help of man. With God we shall triumph – he will trample our enemies. 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 | Isaiah 61-62 |
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| The prophet rejoices over the new Jerusalem | |
| I will rejoice with joy in the Lord, and my spirit shall be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and wrapped me round with the robe of justice, like a bridegroom decked with a crown, like a bride adorned with her jewels. Just as the earth sends up its shoots, and the garden makes its seeds to sprout, so the Lord God will make justice spring up and praise before all the nations. For Sion’s sake I will not be silent, for the sake of Jerusalem I will not be still until her justice comes forth as brightness, and her salvation is lit up like a torch. And the Gentiles shall see your justice, and all the kings see your glory. You shall be called by a new name, chosen by the mouth of the Lord. You shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. No longer called “Forsaken”, your land no longer called “Desolate”, you will be called “My pleasure in her”, and your land “The Wedded”; for the Lord has been well pleased with you, and your land will receive its bridegroom. For as a young man takes a virgin to wife, so will your sons take you. and as a husband takes joy in his spouse, so your God will rejoice at 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. |
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| Psalm 145 (146) |
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| The blessedness of those who hope in the Lord |
| Praise the Lord, my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life, make music to my God as long as I exist. Do not trust in princes to save you, they are only sons of men. One day their breath will leave them, they will return to the ground; on that day perish all their plans. Happy the one whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth and all that is in them, who keeps faith for ever, who gives justice to the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord frees prisoners, he gives light to the blind, he raises the fallen. The Lord loves the upright, cares for strangers, sustains orphans and widows; but the wicked he sends astray. The Lord will reign for all ages, your God, O Sion, from generation to generation. 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 |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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1 Cor 12:31-13:13 / Lk 7:31-35 Many schools now do testing for kindergarten candidates to determine whether they are ready yet for the program. If they’re not, the school recommends to the parents that the child be given “the gift of time,” this is, allowed to mature a little more so that the child can succeed when he or she finally begins the program. It works well. One often wishes that a year off, or even five or ten, would bring some folks to readiness to face a serious issue or to hear something that needs to be heard. It’s frustrating to watch and wait year after year with such folks, and usually to observe no perceptible movement. What frustration Jesus must have felt so often. All he wanted to do was to help make people’s lives better, and all he got in return in too many cases was blind, irrelevant criticism. As today’s gospel says, they rejected John the Baptist and then later rejected Jesus because he wasn’t more like John! Such folks inhabit every one of our lives, and we can give them too much power over us and over our happiness. Jesus’ advice is that after we’ve done our best, we should simply give those folks to the Lord. Continue to give the gift of your good example, but relax and commend them to the Lord. The moment of readiness may come far in the future, and when it does, your goodness will have played its part. |
No, that isn't it. The Korean martyrs commemorated today were canonized after your breviary was printed. There's a "supplement" pamplet you can buy that has the new readings in it.
Yes. That is it. [blinking away tears]
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Among the martyrs in 1839 was Columba Kim, an unmarried woman of twenty-six. She was put in prison, pierced with hot awls and seared with burning coals. She and her sister Agnes were disrobed and kept for two days in a cell with condemned criminals, but were not molested. After Columba complained about the indignity, no more women were subjected to it. The two were beheaded. A boy of thirteen, Peter Ryou, had his flesh so badly torn that he could pull off pieces and throw them at the judges. He was killed by strangulation. Protase Chong, a forty-one-year-old noble, apostatized under torture and was freed. Later he came back, confessed his faith and was tortured to death.