[Salvation]

Office of Readings and Invitatory 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. Alleluia.

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A suitable hymn may be inserted at this point.

Psalm 49 (50)

True reverence for the Lord

The Lord, the God of gods has spoken;
 he has summoned the whole earth, from east to west.
God has shone forth from Sion in her great beauty.
 Our God will come, and he will not be silent.
Before him, a devouring fire;
 around him, a tempest rages.

He will call upon the heavens above, and on the earth, to judge his people.
“Bring together before me my chosen ones, who have sealed my covenant with sacrifice”.
The heavens will proclaim his justice; for God is the true judge.

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 49 (50)

Listen, my people, and I will speak;
 Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
I will not reproach you with your sacrifices,
 for your burnt offerings are always before me.
But I will not accept calves from your houses,
 nor goats from your flocks.

For all the beasts of the forests are mine,
 and in the hills, a thousand animals.
All the birds of the air – I know them.
 Whatever moves in the fields – it is mine.

If I am hungry, I will not tell you;
 for the whole world is mine, and all that is in it.
Am I to eat the flesh of bulls,
 or drink the blood of goats?

Offer a sacrifice to God – a sacrifice of praise;
 to the Most High, fulfil your vows.
Then you may call upon me in the time of trouble:
 I will rescue you, and you will honour 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.

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Psalm 49 (50)

To the sinner, God has said this:

Why do you recite my statutes?
 Why do you dare to speak my covenant?
For you hate what I teach you,
 and reject what I tell you.

The moment you saw a thief, you joined him;
 you threw in your lot with adulterers.
You spoke evil with your mouth,
 and your tongue made plans to deceive.
Solemnly seated, you denounced your own brother;
 you poured forth hatred against your own mother’s son.

All this you did, and I was silent;
 so you thought that I was just like you.
But I will reprove you –
 I will confront you with all you have done.

Understand this, you who forget God;
 lest I tear you apart, with no-one there to save you.
Whoever offers up a sacrifice of praise gives me true honour;
 whoever follows a sinless path in life will be shown the salvation of God.

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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Reading

Malachi 3:1 - 24 ©

Look, I am going to send my messenger to prepare a way before me. And the Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter his Temple; and the angel of the covenant whom you are longing for, yes, he is coming, says the Lord of Hosts. Who will be able to resist the day of his coming? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire and the fullers’ alkali. He will take his seat as refiner and purifier; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and then they will make the offering to the Lord as it should be made. The offering of Judah and Jerusalem will then be welcomed by the Lord as in former days, as in the years of old. I mean to visit you for the judgement and I am going to be a ready witness against sorcerer, adulterer and perjurer, against those who oppress the wage-earner, the widow and the orphan, and who rob the settler of his rights – no need for you to be afraid of me, says the Lord of Hosts. No; I, the Lord, do not change; and you, sons of Jacob, you are not ruined yet! Since the days of your ancestors you have evaded my statutes and not observed them. Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts. You ask, ‘How are we to return? Can a man cheat God?’ Yet you are cheating me. You ask, ‘How are we cheating you?’ In the matter of tithes and dues. The curse lies on you because you, yes you the whole nation, are cheating me. Bring the full tithes and dues to the storehouse so that there may be food in my house, and then see if I do not open the floodgates of heaven for you and pour out blessing for you in abundance. For your sake I will lay a strict injunction on the locust not to destroy the fruits of your soil nor to make the vine in your fields barren, says the Lord of Hosts. All the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delights, says the Lord of Hosts. You say harsh things about me, says the Lord. You ask, ‘What have we said against you?’ You say, ‘It is useless to serve God; what is the good of keeping his commands or of walking mournfully before the Lord of Hosts? Now we have reached the point when we call the arrogant blessed; yes, they prosper, these evil-doers; they try God’s patience and yet go free.’ This is what those who fear the Lord used to say to one another. But the Lord took note and heard them: a book of remembrance was written in his presence recording those who fear him and take refuge in his name. On the day which I am preparing, says the Lord of Hosts, they are going to be my own special possession. I will make allowances for them as a man makes allowances for the son who obeys him. Then once again you will see the difference between an upright man and a wicked one, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him. For the day is coming now, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and the evil-doers will be like stubble. The day that is coming is going to burn them up, says the Lord of Hosts, leaving them neither root nor stalk. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will shine out with healing in its rays; you will leap like calves going out to pasture. You will trample on the wicked, who will be like ashes under your feet on the day I am preparing, says the Lord of Hosts. Remember the Law of my servant Moses to whom at Horeb I prescribed laws and customs for the whole of Israel. Know that I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before my day comes, that great and terrible day. He shall turn the hearts of fathers towards their children and the hearts of children towards their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse.

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Reading	Vatican II, "Gaudium et Spes"
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last
Only by faith can it be seen how the earthly and heavenly city exist together and interpenetrate each other. This is a mystery at the heart of human history – a history that will continue to be disturbed by sin until the splendour of the children of God is fully revealed. The Church pursues her own purpose, which is salvation, and communicates the divine life to mankind. In a sense, she also takes the light that comes from that life and reflects and refracts it so that it shines onto every part of the earth. Most of all, she does this by healing and uplifting the dignity of the human person, by strengthening the bonds that hold human society together and by imbuing daily human activity with a deeper meaning and importance. Thus the Church believes that through her individual members and by her community as a whole she can give great gifts to the family of man and make its history more human. While the Church gives help to the world and receives much from the world, she has only one end in view: that the kingdom of God may come and that the salvation of all mankind may be accomplished. Whatever good the pilgrim people of God has been able to give to the human race during its sojourn on earth, that good comes from the fact that the Church herself is the universal sacrament of salvation; she both manifests the mystery of God’s love for man and puts it into action. For the word of God, through whom all things were made, became flesh himself so that, being a perfect man, he could save mankind and sum up all things in himself. The Lord is the end towards which human history is heading, a single point at which the yearnings of history and civilisation converge, a single point that is the centre of the human race, the fulfilment of all joys and all desires. He is the one whom the Father has raised from the dead, lifted up and seated at his right hand, making him the judge of the living and the dead. United and given life in his Spirit we journey on our pilgrimage towards the consummation of human history and fulfilment of the plan of God’s love, to bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth. The Lord himself has said: Very soon now, I shall be with you again, bringing the reward to be given to every man according to what he deserves. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

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Concluding Prayer

Lord, may your grace go always before us and behind us:
 may it make us constantly eager to do good works.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
 who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
 God for ever and ever.
Amen.

[Salvation]

St. Paul of the Cross -- Founder of the Passionists

 

St. Paul of the Cross

The Story of our fouder: preacher and mystic

He was nineteen. His father wanted him to become a merchant like himself. His priest-uncle advised him to become a priest. A young lady from one of the better families hoped to to be his wife.

But Paul Francis Daneo, born on January 3, 1694, in Ovada, Italy, had a different vision for his life. During his teens years he felt inwardly inspired and captivated by the Cross of Christ. Paul discerned God’s love for all people in the passion and death of Jesus Christ. Realizing all that Jesus had suffered in love for us, Paul wanted to love Jesus in return through prayer and preaching.  This vision was hindered because Paul was the eldest son of a large family and, therefore, obligated to remain home and assist his father in supporting his younger brothers and sisters. 

When Paul was 21 years old, he joined a crusade against the Turks, thinking this was the way God wanted him to serve. But after experiencing the violence and ruthlessness of war, Paul abandoned this way. He had an inner conviction that God would fulfill the vision by a crusade of a much different nature. 

Returning to his hometown, Paul helped his family and dedicated himself to prayer and penance. In 1720 he talked with the local bishop, asking to be allowed to serve the Church as a hermit, a "holy man." The bishop allowed Paul live in one of the town’s churches. Paul, wearing a long black robe as a sign of his commitment, took care of the church property and prepared the altar before the daily celebration of Mass. He was invited to teach religion to the children. Adults, recognizing in Paul the qualities of wisdom and holiness, came to him for advice. At times he was given permission to preach. 

During this period Paul kept a diary and wrote a Rule, which contained his vision of how he would live his life. The Rule contained directives about prayer, fasting, exercise, spiritual disciplines, penances, charity, and many other qualities and activities Paul felt were important in living out a dedicated life. In 1721 Paul brought the Rule to the Vatican in Rome for the Pope’s approval. The guards, thinking him a beggar, turned him away. Paul, severely disappointed, rededicated himself to the vision God had given him. Returning to north of Rome, Paul invited others to join him. Paul did not receive definitive approval for the Rule until 1769