From: Sirach 48:1-14
Elijah
[1] Then the prophet Elijah arose like a fire,
and his word burned like a torch.
[2] He brought a famine upon them,
and by his zeal he made them few in number.
[3] By the word of the Lord he shut up the heavens,
and also three times brought down fire.
[4] How glorious you were, O Elijah, in your wondrous deeds!
And who has the right to boast which you have?
[5] You who raised a corpse from death
and from Hades, by the word of the Most High;
[6] who brought kings down to destruction,
and famous men from their beds;
[7] who heard rebuke at Sinai
and judgments of vengeance at Horeb;
[8] who anointed kings to inflict retribution,
and prophets to succeed you.
[9] You who were taken up by a whirlwind of fire,
in a chariot with horses of fire;
[10] you who are ready at the appointed time, it is written,
to calm the wrath of God before it breaks out in fury
to turn the heart of the father to the son,
and to restore the tribes of Jacob.
[11] Blessed are those who saw you,
and those who have been adorned in love;
for we also shall surely live.
Elisha
[12] It was Elijah who was covered by the whirlwind,
and Elisha who was filled with his spirit;
in all his days he did not tremble before any ruler,
and no one brought him into subjection.
[13] Nothing was too hard for him,
and when he was dead his body prophesied.
[14] As in his life he did wonders,
so in death his deeds were marvellous.
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Commentary:
48:1-16. This passage is a summary of the lives of the prophets Elijah and Elisha.
The author highlights Elijah’s mission to turn the heart of the father to his sons, to
placate God’s wrath (v. 10). In the New Testament these same words are applied
to John the Baptist, with reference to his mission of preparing the way of the Lord
(Lk 1:17; cf. Ma! 4:5-6). Thanks to the preaching of those prophets, Sirach re-
minds us, a remnant of the people remained faithful (v. 16), and the continuation
of the history of salvation was assured.
*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Matthew 6:7-15
An Upright Intention in Almsgiving, Prayer and Fasting (Continuation)
[Jesus said to His disciples:] [7] “And in praying do not heap up empty phrases
as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
[8] Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask
Him. [9] Pray then like this:
Our Father who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
[10] Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in Heaven.
[11] Give us this day our daily bread;
[12] And forgive us our debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors;
[13] And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
[14] For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father also will forgive
you; [15] but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses.”
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Commentary:
7-8. Jesus condemns the superstitious notion that long prayers are needed to at-
tract God’s attention. True piety is not so much a matter of the amount of words
as of the frequency and the love with which the Christian turns towards God in all
the events, great or small, of his day. Vocal prayer is good, and necessary; but
the words count only if they express our inner feelings.
9-13. The “Our Father” is, without any doubt, the most commented-on passage
in all Sacred Scripture. Numerous great Church writers have left us commentaries
full of poetry and wisdom. The early Christians, taught by the precepts of salvation,
and following the divine commandment, centered their prayer on this sublime and
simple form of words given them by Jesus. And the last Christians, too, will raise
their hearts to say the “Our Father” for the last time when they are on the point
of being taken to Heaven. In the meantime, from childhood to death, the “Our Fa-
ther” is a prayer which fills us with hope and consolation. Jesus fully realized how
helpful this prayer would be to us. We are grateful to Him for giving it to us, to the
Apostles for passing it on to us and, in the case of most Christians, to our mothers
for teaching it to us in our infancy. So important is the Lord’s Prayer that from apo-
stolic times it has been used, along with the Creed, the Ten Commandments and
the Sacraments, as the basis of Christian catechesis. Catechumens were intro-
duced to the life of prayer by the “Our Father”, and our catechisms today use it
for that purpose.
St. Augustine says that the Lord’s Prayer is so perfect that it sums up in a few
words everything man needs to ask God for (cf. “Sermon”, 56). It is usually seen
as being made up of an invocation and seven petitions—three to do with praise of
God and four with the needs of men.
9. It is a source of great consolation to be able to call God “our Father”; Jesus,
the Son of God, teaches men to invoke God as Father because we are indeed
His children, and should feel towards Him in that way. “The Lord [...] is not a
tyrannical master or a rigid and implacable judge; He is our Father. He speaks
to us about our lack of generosity, our sins, our mistakes; but He also does so
in order to free us from them, to promise us His friendship and His love [...]. A
child of God treats the Lord as his Father. He is not obsequious and servile, he
is not merely formal and well-mannered; he is completely sincere and trusting”
(St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 64).
“Hallowed by Thy name”: in the Bible a person’s “name” means the same as the
person himself. Here the name of God means God Himself. Why pray that His
name be hallowed, sanctified? We do not mean sanctification in the human
sense — leaving evil behind and drawing closer to God — for God is Holiness It-
self. God, rather, is sanctified when His holiness is acknowledged and honored
by His creatures — which is what this first petition of the “Our Father” means (cf.
“St. Pius Catechism”, IV, 10).
10. “Thy Kingdom come”: this brings up again the central idea of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ — the coming of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is so identical
with the life and work of Jesus Christ that the Gospel is referred to now as the
Gospel of Jesus Christ, now as the Gospel of the Kingdom (Matthew 9:35). On
the notion of the Kingdom of God see the commentary on Matthew 3:2 and 4:17.
The coming of the Kingdom of God is the realization of God’s plan of salvation in
the world. The Kingdom establishes itself in the first place in the core of man’s
being, raising him up to share in God’s own inner life. This elevation has, as it
were, two stages—the first, in this life, where it is brought about by grace; the
second, definitive stage in eternal life, where man’s elevation to the supernatural
level is fully completed. We for our part need to respond to God spontaneously,
lovingly and trustingly.
“Thy will be done”: this third petition expresses two desires. The first is that man
identify humbly and unconditionally with God’s will—abandonment in the arms of
his Father God. The second that the will of God be fulfilled, that man cooperate
with it in full freedom. For example, God’s will is to be found in the moral aspect
of the divine law—but this law is not forced on man. One of the signs of the co-
ming of the Kingdom is man’s loving fulfillment of God’s will. The second part of
the petition, “on earth as it is in Heaven”, means that, just as the angels and
saints in Heaven are fully at one with God’s will, so—we desire—should the same
thing obtain on earth.
Our effort to do God’s will proves that we are sincere when we say the words,
“Thy will be done.” For our Lord says, “Not every one who says to Me, ‘Lord,
Lord’ shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father
who is in Heaven.” (Matthew 7:21). “Anyone, then, who sincerely repeats this
petition, ‘Fiat voluntas tua’, must, at least in intention, have done this already”
(St. Teresa of Avila, “Way of Perfection”, chapter 36).
11. In making this fourth petition, we are thinking primarily of our needs in this
present life. The importance of this petition is that it declares that the material
things we need in our lives are good and lawful. It gives a deep religious dimen-
sion to the support of life: what Christ’s disciple obtains through his own work is
also something for which he should implore God—and he should receive it grate-
fully as a gift from God. God is our support in life: by asking God to support him
and by realizing that it is God who is providing this support, the Christian avoids
being worried about material needs. Jesus does not want us to pray for wealth
or to be attached to material things, but to seek and make sober use of what
meets our needs. Hence, in Matthew as well as in Luke (Luke 11:2), there is re-
ference to having enough food for every day. This fourth petition, then, has to do
with moderate use of food and material things—far from the extremes of opulence
and misery, as God already taught in the Old Testament “Give me neither pover-
ty nor riches; feed me with the food which is needful for me, lest I be full, and de-
ny Thee, and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be poor, and steal, and profane the
name of my God” (Proverbs 30:8).
The Fathers of the Church interpreted the bread asked for here not only as ma-
terial food but also as referring to the Blessed Eucharist, without which our spirit
cannot stay alive.
According to the “St. Pius V Catechism” (cf. IV, 13, 21) the Eucharist is called
our daily bread because it is offered daily to God in the Holy Mass and because
we should worthily receive it, every day if possible, as St. Ambrose advises: “If
the bread is daily, why do you take it only once a year [...]? Receive daily what
is of benefit to you daily! So live that you may deserve to receive it daily!” (”De
Sacramentis”, V, 4).
12. “Debts”: clearly, here, in the sense of sin. In the Aramaic of Jesus’ time the
same word was used for offense and debt. In this fifth petition, then, we admit
that we are debtors because we have offended God. The Old Testament is full
of references to man’s sinful condition. Even the “righteous” are sinners. Recog-
nizing our sins is the first step in every conversion to God. It is not a question of
recognizing that we have sinned in the past but of confessing our present sinful
condition. Awareness of our sinfulness makes us realize our religious need to
have recourse to the only One who can cure it. Hence the advantage of praying
insistently, using the Lord’s Prayer to obtain God’s forgiveness time and again.
The second part of this petition is a serious call to forgive our fellow-men, for we
cannot dare to ask God to forgive us if we are not ready to forgive others. The
Christian needs to realize what this prayer implies: unwillingness to forgive others
means that one is condemning oneself (see the notes on Matthew 5:23-24 and
18:21:21-35).
13. “And lead us not into temptation”: “We do not ask to be totally exempt from
temptation, for human life is one continuous temptation (cf. Job 7:1). What, then,
do we pray for in this petition? We pray that the divine assistance may not forsake
us, lest having been deceived, or worsted, we should yield to temptation; and that
the grace of God may be at hand to succor us when our strength fails, to refresh
and invigorate us in our trials” (”St. Pius V Catechism”, IV, 15, 14).
In this petition of the “Our Father” we recognize that our human efforts alone do
not take us very far in trying to cope with temptation, and that we need to have
humble recourse to God, to get the strength we need. For, “God is strong
enough to free you from everything and can do you more good than all the devils
can do you harm. All that God decrees is that you confide in Him, that you draw
near Him, that you trust Him and distrust yourself, and so be helped; and with
this help you will defeat whatever hell brings against you. Never lose hold of this
firm hope [...] even if the demons are legion and all kinds of severe temptations
harass you. Lean upon Him, because if the Lord is not your support and your
strength, then you will fall and you will be afraid of everything” (St. John of Avila,
“Sermons, 9, First Sunday of Lent”).
“But deliver us from evil”: in this petition, which, in a way, sums up the previous
petitions, we ask the Lord to free us from everything our enemy does to bring us
down; we cannot be free of him unless God Himself free us, in response to our
prayers.
This sentence can also be translated as “Deliver us from the Evil One”, that is to
say, the devil, who is in the last analysis the author of all evils to which we are
prone.
In making this request we can be sure that our prayer will be heard because Je-
sus Christ, when He was on the point of leaving this world, prayed to the Father
for the salvation of all men: “I do not pray that Thou shouldst take them out of the
world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15).
14-15. In verses 14 and 15 St. Matthew gives us a sort of commentary of our Lord
on the fifth petition of the “Our Father”.
A God who forgives is a wonderful God. But if God, who is thrice-holy, has mercy
on the sinner, how much more ought we to forgive others—we sinners, who know
from our own experience the wretchedness of sin. No one on earth is perfect.
Just as God loves us, even though we have defects, and forgives us, we should
love others, even though they have defects, and forgive them. If we wait to love
people who have no defects, we shall never love anyone. If we wait until others
mend their ways or apologize, we will scarcely ever forgive them. But then we
ourselves will never be forgiven. “All right: that person has behaved badly towards
you. But, haven’t you behaved worse towards God?” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”,
686).
Thus, forgiving those who have offended us makes us like our Father, God: “In lo-
ving our enemies there shines forth in us some likeness to God our Father, who,
by the death of His Son, ransomed from everlasting perdition and reconciled to
Himself the human race, which before was most unfriendly and hostile to Him”
(”St. Pius V Catechism”, IV, 14, 19).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
Office of Readings
INVITATORY
The Invitatory may be said for the first 'hour' recited in the day.
Lord,
+ open my lips.
– And my mouth will proclaim your praise.
Ant. Come, let us worship God, wonderful in his saints.
Or: Let us sing praise to God, as we acclaim Saint Aloysius.
Psalm 95A call to praise God
Encourage each other daily while it is still today (Hebrews 3:13).
Come, let us sing to the Lord *
and shout with joy to the Rock who saves us.
Let us approach him with praise and thanksgiving *
and sing joyful songs to the Lord.
Ant. Come, let us worship God, wonderful in his saints.
Or: Let us sing praise to God, as we acclaim Saint Aloysius.
The Lord is God, the mighty God, *
the great king over all the gods.
He holds in his hands the depths of the earth *
and the highest mountains as well.
He made the sea; it belongs to him, *
the dry land, too, for it was formed by his hands.
Ant. Come, let us worship God, wonderful in his saints.
Or: Let us sing praise to God, as we acclaim Saint Aloysius.
Come, then, let us bow down and worship *
bending the knee before the Lord, our maker.
For he is our God and we are his people, *
the flock he shepherds.
Ant. Come, let us worship God, wonderful in his saints.
Or: Let us sing praise to God, as we acclaim Saint Aloysius.
Today, listen to the voice of the Lord: †
Do not grow stubborn, as your fathers did
in the wilderness, *
when at Meriba and Massah
they challenged me and provoked me, *
Although they had seen all of my works.
Ant. Come, let us worship God, wonderful in his saints.
Or: Let us sing praise to God, as we acclaim Saint Aloysius.
Forty years I endured that generation. *
I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray
and they do not know my ways.”
So I swore in my anger, *
“They shall not enter into my rest.”
Ant. Come, let us worship God, wonderful in his saints.
Or: Let us sing praise to God, as we acclaim Saint Aloysius.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, *
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, *
and will be for ever. Amen.
Ant. Come, let us worship God, wonderful in his saints.
Or: Let us sing praise to God, as we acclaim Saint Aloysius.
If the Invitatory is not said, then the following is used:
God, + come to my assistance.
– Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
– as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Alleluia.
HYMN
This is the feast day of the Lord’s true witness,
Whom through the ages all have held in honor;
Now let us praise him and his deeds of glory
With exultation.
So now in chorus, giving God the glory,
We sing his praises and his mighty triumph,
That in his glory we may all be sharers
Here and hereafter.
Praise to the Father and the Son most holy,
Praise to the Spirit, with them coeternal,
Who give examples in the lives of all saints,
That we may follow.
Melody: Herr, Deinen Zorn 11.11.11.5Music: Johann Crüger, 1653Text: Iste Confessor, eighth century.
Translation: Composite.
Or:
Blest are the pure in heart,
For they shall see our God:
The secret of the Lord is theirs,
Their soul is Christ’s abode.
The Lord, who left the heavens
Our life and peace to bring,
To dwell in lowliness with men,
Their pattern and their King:
Still to the lowly soul
He doth himself impart,
And for his dwelling and his throne
Chooseth the pure in heart.
Lord, we thy presence seek;
May ours this blessing be;
Give us a pure and lowly heart,
A temple fit for thee.
Melody: Franconia S.M.Music: W. H. Havergal, 1793-1870Text: J. Keble, 1792-1866
PSALMODY
Ant. 1 Look on us, Lord, and see how we are despised.
Psalm 89:39-53
Lament for the fall of David’s dynasty
He has raised up for us a mighty Savior born of the house of David his servant (Luke 1:69).
IV
And yet you have rejected and spurned
*and are angry with the one you have anointed.
You have broken your covenant with your servant
*and dishonored his crown in the dust.
You have broken down all his walls
*and reduced his fortresses to ruins.
He is despoiled by all who pass by:
*he has become the taunt of his neighbors.
You have exalted the right hand of his foes;
*you have made all his enemies rejoice.
You have made his sword give way,
*you have not upheld him in battle.
You have brought his glory to an end;
*you have hurled his throne to the ground.
You have cut short the years of his youth;
*you have heaped disgrace upon him.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
*and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now,
*and will be for ever. Amen.
Ant. Look on us, Lord, and see how we are despised.
Ant. 2 I am the root and stock of David; I am the morning star.
V
How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself for ever?
*How long will your anger burn like a fire?
Remember, Lord, the shortness of my life
*and how frail you have made the sons of men.
What man can live and never see death?
*Who can save himself from the grasp of the grave?
Where are your mercies of the past, O Lord,
*which you have sworn in your faithfulness to David?
Remember, Lord, how your servant is taunted,
*how I have to bear all the insults of the peoples.
Thus your enemies taunt me, O Lord,
*mocking your anointed at every step.
Blessed be the Lord for ever. Amen, amen!
Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
*and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now,
*and will be for ever. Amen.
Psalm Prayer
Lord, God of mercy and fidelity, you made a new and lasting pact with men and sealed it in the blood of your Son. Forgive the folly of our disloyalty and make us keep your commandments, so that in your new covenant we may be witnesses and heralds of your faithfulness and love on earth, and sharers of your glory in heaven.
Ant. I am the root and stock of David; I am the morning star.
Ant. 3 Our years wither away like grass, but you, Lord God, are eternal.
Psalm 90
May we live in the radiance of God
There is no time with God: a thousand years, a single day: it is all one (2 Peter 3:8).
O Lord, you have been our refuge
*from one generation to the next.
Before the mountains were born
†or the earth or the world brought forth,
*you are God, without beginning or end.
You turn men back into dust
*and say: “Go back, sons of men.”
To your eyes a thousand years
†are like yesterday, come and gone,
*no more than a watch in the night.
You sweep men away like a dream,
*like grass which springs up in the morning.
In the morning it springs up and flowers:
*by evening it withers and fades.
So we are destroyed in your anger,
*struck with terror in your fury.
Our guilt lies open before you;
*our secrets in the light of your face.
All our days pass away in your anger.
*Our life is over like a sigh.
Our span is seventy years
*or eighty for those who are strong.
And most of these are emptiness and pain.
*They pass swiftly and we are gone.
Who understands the power of your anger
*and fears the strength of your fury?
Make us know the shortness of our life
*that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Lord, relent! Is your anger for ever?
*Show pity to your servants.
In the morning, fill us with your love;
*we shall exult and rejoice all our days.
Give us joy to balance our affliction
*for the years when we knew misfortune.
Show forth your work to your servants;
*let your glory shine on their children.
Let the favor of the Lord be upon us:
†give success to the work of our hands,
*give success to the work of our hands.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
*and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now,
*and will be for ever. Amen.
Psalm Prayer
Eternal Father, you give us life despite our guilt and even add days and years to our lives in order to bring us wisdom. Make us love and obey you, so that the work of our hands may always display what your hands have done, until the day we gaze upon the beauty of your face.
Ant. Our years wither away like grass, but you, Lord God, are eternal.
In you is the source of life.
– In your light we see light itself.
READINGS
FIRST READING
From the book of Judges 8:22-23, 30-32; 9:1-15, 19-20
The people of God attempt to find a king
The Israelites then said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you, your son, and your son’s son—for you rescued us from the power of Midian.” But Gideon answered them, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you. The Lord must rule over you.”
Now Gideon had seventy sons, his direct descendants, for he had many wives. His concubine who lived in Shechem also bore him a son, whom he named Abimelech. At a good old age Gideon, son of Joash, died and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Abimelech, son of Jerubbaal, went to his mother’s kinsmen in Shechem, and said to them and to the whole clan to which his mother’s family belonged, “Put this question to all the citizens of Shechem: ‘Which is better for you: that seventy men, or all Jerubbaal’s sons, rule over you, or that one man rule over you?’ You must remember that I am your own flesh and bone.” When his mother’s kin repeated these words to them on his behalf, all the citizens of Shechem sympathized with Abimelech, thinking, “He is our kinsman.” They also gave him seventy silver shekels from the temple of Baal of Berith, with which Abimelech hired shiftless men and ruffians as his followers.
He then went to his ancestral house in Ophrah, and slew his brothers, the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, on one stone. Only the youngest son of Jerubbaal, Jotham, escaped, for he was hidden. Then all the citizens of Shechem and all Beth-millo came together and proceeded to make Abimelech king by the terebinth at the memorial pillar in Shechem.
When this was reported to him, Jotham went to the top of Mount Gerizim, and standing there, cried out to them in a loud voice: “Hear me, citizens of Shechem, that God may then hear you! Once the trees went to anoint a king over themselves. So they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’ But the olive tree answered them, ‘Must I give up my rich oil, whereby men and gods are honored, and go to wave over the trees?’ “Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come; you reign over us!’ But the fig tree answered them, ‘Must I give up my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to wave over the trees?’
“Then the trees said to the vine, ‘Come you, and reign over us.’ But the vine answered them, ‘Must I give up my wine that cheers gods and men, and go to wave over the trees?’
“Then all the trees said to the buckthorn, ‘Come; you reign over us!’ But the buckthorn replied to the trees, ‘If you wish to anoint me king over you in good faith, come and take refuge in my shadow. Otherwise, let fire come from the buckthorn and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’
“If, then, you have acted in good faith and with honor toward Jerubbaal and his family this day, rejoice in Abimelech and may he in turn rejoice in you. But if not, let fire come forth from Abimelech to devour the citizens of Shechem and Beth-millo, and let fire come forth from the citizens and from Beth-millo to devour Abimelech.”
RESPONSORY Judges 8:23; Revelation 5:13
I will not rule over you, nor shall my son.
– The Lord will rule over you.
Praise and honor, glory and power to him who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb for ever and ever.
– The Lord will rule over you.
SECOND READING
From a letter to his mother by Saint Aloysius(Acta Sanctorum, Iunii 5, 878)
God's mercies shall be my song for ever
May the comfort and grace of the Holy Spirit be yours for ever, most honored lady. Your letter found me lingering still in this region of the dead, but now I must rouse myself to make my way on to heaven at last and to praise God for ever in the land of the living; indeed I had hoped that before this time my journey there would have been over. If charity, as Saint Paul says, means
to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who are glad, then, dearest mother, you shall rejoice exceedingly that God in his grace and his love for you is showing me the path to true happiness, and assuring me that I shall never lose him.
The divine goodness, most honored lady, is a fathomless and shoreless ocean, and I confess that when I plunge my mind into thought of this it is carried away by the immensity and feels quite lost and bewildered there. In return for my short and feeble labours, God is calling me to eternal rest; his voice from heaven invites me to the infinite bliss I have sought so languidly, and promises me this reward for the tears I have so seldom shed.
Take care above all things, most honoured lady, not to insult God’s boundless loving kindness; you would certainly do this if you mourned as dead one living face to face with God, one whose prayers can bring you in your troubles more powerful aid than they ever could on earth. And our parting will not be for long; we shall see each other again in heaven; we shall be united with our Saviour; there we shall praise him with heart and soul, sing of his mercies for ever, and enjoy eternal happiness. When he takes away what he once lent us, his purpose is to store our treasure elsewhere more safely and bestow on us those very blessings that we ourselves would most choose to have.
I write all this with the one desire that you and all my family may consider my departure a joy and favor and that you especially may speed with a mother’s blessing my passage across the waters till I reach the shore to which all hopes belong. I write the more willingly because I have no clearer way of expressing the love and respect I owe you as your son.
RESPONSORY Psalm 41:13;84:11
You upheld me because of my innocence;
– you let me stand in your sight for ever.
I would rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God
than live in the tents of the wicked.
– you let me stand in your sight for ever.
CONCLUDING PRAYER
Let us pray.
Father of love,
giver of all good things,
in Saint Aloysius you combined remarkable innocence
with the spirit of penance.
By the help of his prayers
may we who have not followed his innocence
follow his example of penance.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.
Or:
O God, giver of heavenly gifts,
who in Saint Aloysius Gonzaga
joined penitence to a wonderful innocence of life,
grant, through his merits and intercession,
that, though we have failed to follow him in innocence,
we may imitate him in penitence.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.
ACCLAMATION
Let us praise the Lord.
– And give him thanks.
The following is the longer version of the vital prayer composed by Pope Leo XIII in 1888 after his startling vision as to the future of the Church. This prayer was dedicated for the Feast of St. Michael 1448 years from the date of the election of the first Leo - Pope Saint Leo the Great. Everyone is familiar with the first prayer below which was mandated by His Holiness as part of the Leonine Prayers after Low Mass. After Vatican II, in legion with the devil Giovanni Montini outlawed this necessary prayer and then one wonders how "the smoke of satan" got into the sanctuary? The conciliarists wanted to make sure the words in bold below would never see the light of day again for in it Leo foretold what would happen: The shepherd would be struck, the sheep scattered. Below are both the short and longer versions of this poignant prayer which should never be forgotten.
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray, and do thou, O heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.Look down upon me, O good and gentle Jesus, while before Thy face I humbly kneel, and with burning soul pray and beseech Thee to fix deep in my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope and charity, true contrition for my sins, and a firm purpose of amendment; the while I contemplate with great love and tender pity Thy five most precious wounds, pondering over them within me, calling to mind the words which David Thy prophet said of Thee, my good Jesus: "They have pierced My hands and My feet; they have numbered all My bones."
PRAYERS AFTER 
