Jul 06, Morning Prayer for Friday of the 13th week of Ordinary Time

Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. III:
Ordinary: 649
All from the Psalter: Friday, Week I, 789

Liturgy of the Hours Vol. IV:
Ordinary: 618
All from the Psalter: Friday, Week I, 753

Christian Prayer:
Ordinary: 689
All from the Psalter: Friday, Week I, 759

Morning Prayer for Friday in Ordinary Time

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

From all that dwell below the skies,
let the Creator’s praise arise!
Alleluia! alleluia!
Let the Redeemer’s Name be sung
through every land, by every tongue!
Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!
Alleluia! alleluia!

Eternal are thy mercies, Lord,
and truth eternal is thy word:
Alleluia! alleluia!
Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore
till suns shall rise and set no more.
Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!
Alleluia! alleluia!

Your lofty themes, ye mortals, bring,
In songs of praise divinely sing;
Alleluia! alleluia!
The great salvation loud proclaim,
And shout for joy the Savior’s Name.
Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!
Alleluia! alleluia!

In every land begin the song;
To every land the strains belong;
Alleluia! alleluia!
In cheerful sounds all voices raise,
And fill the world with loudest praise.
Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!
Alleluia! alleluia!

“From All That Dwell Below The Skys” performed by St. Michael’s Singers; Words: Isaac Watts, 1719. Music: John Hatton, 1793.

PSALMODY

Ant. 1 Lord, you will accept the true sacrifice offered on your altar.

Psalm 51
O God, have mercy on me
Your inmost being must be renewed, and you must put on the new man (Ephesians 4:23-24).

Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness.
In your compassion blot out my offense.
O wash me more and more from my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.

My offenses truly I know them;
my sin is always before me
Against you, you alone, have I sinned;
what is evil in your sight I have done.

That you may be justified when you give sentence
and be without reproach when you judge,
O see, in guilt I was born,
a sinner was I conceived.

Indeed you love truth in the heart;
then in the secret of my heart teach me wisdom.
O purify me, then I shall be clean;
O wash me, I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me hear rejoicing and gladness,
that the bones you have crushed may revive.
From my sins turn away your face
and blot out all my guilt.

A pure heart create for me, O God,
put a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
nor deprive me of your holy spirit.

Give me again the joy of your help;
with a spirit of fervor sustain me,
that I may teach transgressors your ways
and sinners may return to you.

O rescue me, God, my helper,
and my tongue shall ring out your goodness.
O Lord, open my lips
and my mouth shall declare your praise.

For in sacrifice you take no delight,
burnt offering from me you would refuse,
my sacrifice, a contrite spirit,
a humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.

In your goodness, show favor to Zion:
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Then you will be pleased with lawful sacrifice,
holocausts offered on your altar.

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

Father, he who knew no sin was made sin for us, to save us and restore us to your friendship. Look upon our contrite heart and afflicted spirit and heal our troubled conscience, so that in the joy and strength of the Holy Spirit we may proclaim your praise and glory before all the nations.

Ant. Lord, you will accept the true sacrifice offered on your altar.

Ant. 2 All the descendants of Israel will glory in the Lord’s gift of victory.

Canticle — Isaiah 45:15-25
People of all nations will become disciples of the Lord
Every knee shall bend at the name of Jesus (Philippians 2:10).

Truly with you God is hidden,
the God of Israel, the savior!
Those are put to shame and disgrace
who vent their anger against him.
Those go in disgrace
who carve images.

Israel, you are saved by the Lord, saved forever!
You shall never be put to shame or disgrace
in future ages.

For thus says the Lord,
the creator of the heavens,
who is God,
the designer and maker of the earth
who established it,
not creating it to be a waste,
but designing it to be lived in:

I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I have not spoken from hiding
nor from some dark place of the earth.
And I have not said to the descendants of Jacob,
“Look for me in an empty waste.”
I, the Lord, promise justice,
I foretell what is right.

Come and assemble, gather together,
you fugitives from among the Gentiles!
They are without knowledge who bear wooden idols
and pray to gods that cannot save.

Come here and declare in counsel together:
Who announced this from the beginning
and foretold it from of old?
Was it not I, the Lord,
besides whom there is no other God?
There is no just and saving God but me.

Turn to me and be safe,
all you ends of the earth,
for I am God; there is no other!

By myself I swear,
uttering my just decree
and my unalterable word:

To me every knee shall bend;
by me every tongue shall swear,
saying, “Only in the Lord
are just deeds and power.

“Before him in shame shall come
all who vent their anger against him.
In the Lord shall be the vindication and the glory
of all the descendants of Israel.”

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. All the descendants of Israel will glory in the Lord’s gift of victory.

Ant. 3 Let us go into God’s presence singing for joy.

Psalm 100
The joyful song of those entering God’s temple
The Lord calls his ransomed people to sing songs of victory (Saint Athanasius).

Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing for joy.

Know that he, the Lord, is God.
He made us, we belong to him,
we are his people, the sheep of his flock.

Go within his gates, giving thanks.
Enter his courts with songs of praise.
Give thanks to him and bless his name.

Indeed, how good is the Lord,
eternal his merciful love.
He is faithful from age to age.

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

With joy and gladness we cry out to you, Lord, and ask you: open our hearts to sing your praises and announce your goodness and truth.

Ant. Let us go into God’s presence singing for joy.

READING Ephesians 4:29-32

Never let evil talk pass your lips; say only the good things men need to hear, things that will really help them. Do nothing that will sadden the Holy Spirit with whom you were sealed against the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, all passion and anger, harsh words, slander, and malice of every kind. In place of these, be kind to one another, compassionate, and mutually forgiving, just as God has forgiven you in Christ.

Sacred Silence (indicated by a bell) – a moment to reflect and receive in our hearts the full resonance of the voice of the Holy Spirit and to unite our personal prayer more closely with the word of God and public voice of the Church.

RESPONSORY

At daybreak, be merciful to me.
– At daybreak, be merciful to me.

Make known to me the path that I must walk.
– Be merciful to me.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
– At daybreak, be merciful to me.

CANTICLE OF ZECHARIAH

Ant. The Lord has come to his people and set them free.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
he has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior,
born of the house of his servant David.

Through his holy prophets he promised of old
that he would save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant.

This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
free to worship him without fear,
holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
to give his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.

In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

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. The Lord has come to his people and set them free.

INTERCESSIONS

Through his cross the Lord Jesus brought salvation to the human
race. We adore him and in faith we call out to him:
– Lord, pour out your mercy upon us.

Christ, Rising Sun, warm us with your rays,
and restrain us from every evil impulse.
– Lord, pour out your mercy upon us.

Keep guard over our thoughts, words and actions,
and make us pleasing in your sight this day.
– Lord, pour out your mercy upon us.

Turn your gaze from our sinfulness,
and cleanse us from our iniquities.
– Lord, pour out your mercy upon us.

Through your cross and resurrection,
fill us with the consolation of the Spirit.
– Lord, pour out your mercy upon us.

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 who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

Concluding Prayer

God our Father,
you conquer the darkness of ignorance
by the light of your Word.
Strengthen within our hearts
the faith you have given us;
let not temptation ever quench the fire
that your love has kindled within us.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

DISMISSAL

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life.
– Amen.

Jul 06, Midday Prayer for Friday of the 13th week of Ordinary Time

Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. III:
Ordinary: 659
All from the Psalter: Friday, Week I, 796 (Midday)

Liturgy of the Hours Vol. IV:
Ordinary: 623
All from the Psalter: Friday, Week I, 760 (Midday)

Christian Prayer:
All from the Psalter: Friday, Week I, 1017 (Midday)

Midday Prayer for Friday using Current Psalmody

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

Per crucem et passionem tuam
Libera nos domine, domine
(repeated 4X)

English translation

Through Thy Cross and Passion,
Good Lord, deliver us

Per Crucem (By Your Cross) by Melinda Kirigin-Voss
“Per Crucem” Performed by Melinda Kirigin-Voss is available from Amazon.com

PSALMODY

Ant. 1 Lightly I run in the way you have shown, for you have opened my heart to receive your law.

Psalm 119
IV (Daleth)

My soul lies in the dust;
by your word revive me.
I declared my ways and you answered:
teach me your statutes.

Make me grasp the way of your precepts
and I will muse on your wonders.
My soul pines away with grief;
by your word raise me up.

Keep me from the way of error
and teach me your law.
I have chosen the way of truth
with your decrees before me.

I bind myself to do your will;
Lord, do not disappoint me.
I will run the way of your commands;
you give freedom to my heart.

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, we are citizens of this earth and ask to be made citizens of heaven by your free gift. Help us to run in the way of your commandments and to set our hearts on you alone.

Ant. Lightly I run in the way you have shown, for you have opened my heart to receive your law.

Ant. 2 I trust in the Lord and will not be shaken.

Psalm 26
Trusting prayer of an innocent man
God chose us in Christ to be holy and sinless (Ephesians 1:4).

Give judgment for me, O Lord:
for I walk the path of perfection.
I trust in the Lord; I have not wavered.

Examine me, Lord, and try me;
O test my heart and my mind,
for your love is before my eyes
and I walk according to your truth.

I never take my place with liars
and with hypocrites I shall not go.
I hate the evil-doer’s company:
I will not take my place with the wicked.

To prove my innocence I wash my hands
and take my place around your altar,
singing a song of thanksgiving,
proclaiming all your wonders.

O Lord, I love the house where you dwell,
the place where your glory abides.

Do not sweep me away with sinners,
nor my life with bloodthirsty men
in whose hands are evil plots,
whose right hands are filled with gold.

As for me, I walk the path of perfection.
Redeem me and show me your mercy.
My foot stands on level ground:
I will bless the Lord in the assembly.

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

Send the fire of your Holy Spirit deep within us, Lord, so that we can serve you with chaste bodies and please you with pure minds.

Ant. I trust in the Lord and will not be shaken.

Ant. 3 I put all my trust in the Lord, and he has not failed me.

Psalm 28
Entreaty and thanksgiving
Father, I thank you, for you have heard my prayer ( John 11:41).

To you, O Lord, I call,
my rock, hear me.
If you do not heed I shall become
like those in the grave.

Hear the voice of my pleading
as I call for help,
as I lift up my hands in prayer
to your holy place.

Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with the evil-doers,
who speak words of peace to their neighbors
but with evil in their hearts.

Blessed be the Lord for he has heard
my cry, my appeal.
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
in him my heart trusts.
I was helped, my heart rejoices
and I praise him with my song.

The Lord is the strength of his people,
a fortress where his anointed find salvation.
Save your people; bless Israel your heritage.
Be their shepherd and carry them for ever.

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

You are the strength of the people, Father. Save us from the pit of death and unite us as one in your holy temple, so that we may attain in our hearts the peace our tongues proclaim.

Ant. I put all my trust in the Lord, and he has not failed me.

READING 2 Corinthians 13:4

It is true he was crucified out of weakness, but he lives by the power of God. We too are weak in him, but we live with him by God’s power in us.

Sacred Silence (indicated by a bell) – a moment to reflect and receive in our hearts the full resonance of the voice of the Holy Spirit and to unite our personal prayer more closely with the word of God and public voice of the Church.

I am broken, crushed to the earth.
– Speak, Lord, your word of life.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ,
at noon, when darkness covered all the earth,
you mounted the wood of the cross
as the innocent victim for our redemption.
May your light be always with us
to guide us to eternal life in that kingdom
where you live and reign for ever and ever.
– Amen.

ACCLAMATION (only added when praying in community)

Let us praise the Lord.
– And give him thanks.

Jul 06, Evening Prayer for Friday of the 13th week of Ordinary Time

Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours Vol. III:
Ordinary: 668
All from the Psalter: Friday, Week I, 801

Liturgy of the Hours Vol. IV:
Ordinary: 632
All from the Psalter: Friday, Week I, 765

Christian Prayer:
Ordinary: 694
All from the Psalter: Friday, Week I, 765

Evening Prayer for Friday in Ordinary Time

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

O Lord, the light of my life
My God shine light within my darkness
My Lord my God shine love within my darkness

O Lord, the light by Taize
“O Lord, the light” performed by Taize is available from Amazon.com.

PSALMODY

Ant. 1 Lord, lay your healing hand upon me, for I have sinned.

Psalm 41
Prayer of a sick person
One of you will betray me, yes, one who eats with me (Mark 14:18).

Happy the man who considers the poor and the weak.
The Lord will save him in the day of evil,
will guard him, give him life, make him happy in the land
and will not give him up to the will of his foes.
The Lord will help him on his bed of pain,
he will bring him back from sickness to health.

As for me, I said: “Lord, have mercy on me,
heal my soul for I have sinned against you.”
My foes are speaking evil against me.
“how long before he dies and his name be forgotten?”
They come to visit me and speak empty words,
their hearts full of malice, they spread it abroad.

My enemies whisper together against me.
They all weigh up the evil which is on me.
“Some deadly thing has fastened upon him,
he will not rise again from where he lies.”
Thus even my friend, in whom I trusted,
who ate my bread, has turned against me.

But you, O Lord, have mercy on me.
Let me rise once more and I will repay them.
By this I shall know that you are my friend,
if my foes do not shout in triumph over me.
If you uphold me I shall be unharmed
and set in your presence for ever more.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel
from age to age. 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 Jesus, healer of soul and body, you said: Blessed are the merciful, they will obtain mercy. Teach us to come to the aid of the needy in a spirit of brotherly love, that we in turn may be received and strengthened by you.

Ant. Lord, lay your healing hand upon me, for I have sinned.

Ant. 2 The mighty Lord is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

Psalm 46
God our refuge and strength
He shall be called Emmanuel, which means: God-with-us (Matthew 1:23).

God is for us a refuge and strength,
a helper close at hand, in time of distress,
so we shall not fear though the earth should rock,
though the mountains fall into the depths of the sea;
even though its waters rage and foam,
even though the mountains be shaken by its waves.

The Lord of hosts is with us:
the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

The waters of a river give joy to God’s city,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within, it cannot be shaken;
God will help it at the dawning of the day.
Nations are in tumult, kingdoms are shaken:
he lifts his voice, the earth shrinks away.

The Lord of hosts is with us:
the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

Come, consider the works of the Lord,
the redoubtable deeds he has done on the earth.
He puts an end to wars over all the earth;
the bow he breaks, the spear he snaps.
(He burns the shields with fire.)
“Be still and know that I am God,
supreme among the nations, supreme on the earth!”

The Lord of hosts is with us:
the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

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

All-powerful Father, the refuge and strength of your people, you protect in adversity and defend in prosperity those who put their trust in you. May they persevere in seeking your will and find their way to you through obedience.

Ant. The mighty Lord is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

Ant. 3 All nations will come and worship before you, O Lord.

Canticle – Revelation 15:3-4
Hymn of adoration

Mighty and wonderful are your works,
Lord God Almighty!
Righteous and true are your ways,
O King of the nations!

Who would dare refuse you honor,
or the glory due your name, O Lord?

Since you alone are holy,
all nations shall come
and worship in your presence.
Your mighty deeds are clearly seen.

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. All nations will come and worship before you, O Lord.

READING Romans 15:1-3

We who are strong in faith should be patient with the scruples of those whose faith is weak; we must not be selfish. Each should please his neighbor so as to do him good by building up his spirit. Thus, in accord with Scripture, Christ did not please himself: “The reproaches they uttered against you fell on me.” Everything written before our time was written for our instruction, that we might derive hope from the lessons of patience and the words of encouragement in the Scriptures. May God, the source of all patience and encouragement, enable you to live in perfect harmony with one another according to the spirit of Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and voice you may glorify God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sacred Silence (indicated by a bell) – a moment to reflect and receive in our hearts the full resonance of the voice of the Holy Spirit and to unite our personal prayer more closely with the word of God and public voice of the Church.

RESPONSORY

Christ loved us and washed away our sins, in his own blood.
– Christ loved us and washed away our sins, in his own blood.

He made us a nation of kings and priests,
– in his own blood.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
– Christ loved us and washed away our sins, in his own blood.

CANTICLE OF MARY

Ant. The Lord has come to the help of his servants, for he has remembered his promise of mercy.

Luke 1:46-55
The soul rejoices in the Lord

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.

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. The Lord has come to the help of his servants, for he has remembered his promise of mercy.

INTERCESSIONS

Blessed be God, who hears the prayers of the needy, and fills the hungry with good things. Let us pray to him in confidence:
– Lord, show us your mercy.

Merciful Father, upon the cross Jesus offered you the perfect evening sacrifice, we pray now for all the suffering members of his Church.
– Lord, show us your mercy.

Release those in bondage, give sight to the blind, shelter the widow and the orphan.
– Lord, show us your mercy.

Clothe your faithful people in the armor of salvation, and shield them from the deceptions of the devil.
– Lord, show us your mercy.

Let your merciful presence be with us, Lord, at the hour of our death, may we be found faithful and leave this world in your peace.
– Lord, show us your mercy.

Lead the departed into the light of your dwelling-place, that they may gaze upon you for all eternity.
– Lord, show us your mercy.

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 who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

Concluding Prayer

God our Father,
help us to follow the example
of your Son’s patience in suffering.
By sharing the burden he carries,
may we come to share his glory
in the kingdom where he lives with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

DISMISSAL

May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life.
– Amen.

Jul 06, Night Prayer for Friday of the 13th week of Ordinary Time

Ribbon Placement:
Liturgy of the Hours:
Vol I, Page 1185
Vol II, Page 1642
Vol III, Page 1285
Vol IV, Page 1249

Christian Prayer:
Page 1052

General instruction:
Please pray with us actively, especially by joining with us in saying antiphons and responses, most of which are indicated in this highlight.

Consider an examination of your own conscience before beginning to best make use of our time together in prayer.

Night Prayer for Friday

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.

Examination of conscience:

We are called to have a clear conscience toward God and toward men, in our hearts and in our minds, in our actions and inactions. To do so, it is vital that we examine our conscience daily and to ask for God’s mercy as we fall short and to ask for His strength to do better.

I confess to almighty God,
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have greatly sinned,
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done and in what I have failed to do,
And, striking your breast, say:
through my own fault, through my fault,
through my most grievous fault;
Then continue:
therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-virgin,
all the Angels and Saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.
With a priest present, this absolution will be given:
May almighty God have mercy on us,
forgive us our sins,
and bring us to everlasting life.
The people reply: Amen

HYMN

Peace be to you and grace from Him
Who freed us from our sin
Who loved us all, and shed his blood
That we might saved be.
Sing holy, holy to our Lord
The Lord almighty God
Who was and is, and is to come
Sing holy, holy Lord.
Rejoice in heaven,
all ye that dwell therein
Rejoice on earth, ye saints below
For Christ is coming,
Is coming soon
For Christ is coming soon.
E’en so Lord Jesus quickly come
And night shall be no more
They need no light, no lamp, nor sun
For Christ will be their All!

E’en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come by Choir of The Cathedral of the Madeleine & The Madeleine Choir School

PSALMODY

Ant. 1 Day and night I cry to you, my God.

Psalm 88
Prayer of a sick person
This is your hour when darkness reigns (Luke 22:53).

Lord my God, I call for help by day;
I cry at night before you.
Let my prayer come into your presence.
O turn your ear to my cry.

For my soul is filled with evils;
my life is on the brink of the grave.
I am reckoned as one in the tomb;
I have reached the end of my strength,

Like one alone among the dead,
like the slain lying in their graves,
like those you remember no more,
cut off, as they are, from your hand.

You have laid me in the depths of the tomb,
in places that are dark, in the depths.
Your anger weighs down upon me;
I am drowned beneath your waves.

You have taken away my friends
and made me hateful in their sight.
Imprisoned, I cannot escape;
my eyes are sunken with grief.

I call to you, Lord, all the day long;
to you I stretch out my hands.
Will you work your wonders for the dead?
Will the shades stand and praise you?

Will your love be told in the grave
or your faithfulness among the dead?
Will your wonders be known in the dark
or your justice in the land of oblivion?

As for me, Lord, I call to you for help;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
Lord, why do you reject me?
Why do you hide your face?

Wretched, close to death from my youth,
I have borne your trials; I am numb.
Your fury has swept down upon me;
your terrors have utterly destroyed me.

They surround me all the day like a flood,
they assail me all together.
Friend and neighbor you have taken away:
my one companion is darkness.

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. Day and night I cry to you, my God.

READING Jeremiah 14:9a

You are in our midst, O Lord,
your name we bear:
do not forsake us, O Lord, our God!

RESPONSORY

Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
– Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.

You have redeemed us, Lord God of truth.
– I commend my spirit.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
– Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.

Gospel Canticle

Ant. Protect us, Lord, as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep, that awake, we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep, rest in his peace.

Luke 2:29-32
Christ is the light of the nations and the glory of Israel

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace;
your word has been fulfilled:

my own eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared in the sight of every people:

a light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people Israel.

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. Protect us, Lord, as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep, that awake, we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep, rest in his peace.

Concluding Prayer

All-powerful God
keep us united with your Son
in his death and burial
so that we may rise to new life with him,
who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
– Amen.

Blessing

May the all-powerful Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death.
– Amen.

Antiphon or song in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Saint Maria Goretti, Virgin & Martyr

Saint Maria Goretti, Virgin & Martyr
Optional Memorial
July 6th

St. Maria Goretti, drawing by Helen Hull Hitchcock

Collect:
O God, author of innocence and lover of chastity,
who bestowed the grace of martyrdom
on your handmaid, the Virgin Saint Maria Goretti, in her youth,
grant, we pray, through her intercession,
that, as you gave her a crown for her steadfastness,
so we, too, may be firm
in obeying your commandments.
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.
First Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20
"Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food"--and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!

But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Gospel Reading: John 12:24-26
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If any one serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant be also; if any one serves Me, the Father will honor him.

Read - Michaelmas 2002 winning essay, The Little Lily of Purity by Katherine Buckmaster.

JOHN PAUL II
ANGELUS
Sunday, 7 July 2002

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
1. Maria Goretti died 100 years ago, on 6 July 1902. She had been mortally injured the day before by the blind violence of her attacker. My Venerable Predecessor, the Servant of God Pius XII, canonized her in 1950, holding her up to everyone as a model of courageous fidelity to the Christian vocation, even to the supreme sacrifice of life.

I wanted to recall this important event with a special Message addressed to the Bishop of Albano, stressing the timeliness of this martyr of purity, whom I hope adolescents and young people will get to know better.
St Maria Goretti is an example for the new generations who are threatened by a non-commital attitude that finds it difficult to understand the importance of the values which admit of no compromise.
2. Although she was poor and deprived of a school education, Maria, who was not yet 12 years old had a strong and mature personality, shaped by the religious instruction she had received in the family. This made her capable not only of defending herself with heroic chastity, but even of forgiving her murderer.
Her martyrdom reminds us that the human being is not fulfilled by following the impulses of pleasure but by living life with love and responsibility.
I well know, dear young people, how sensitive you are to these ideals. As I look forward to meeting you in Toronto in two weeks time, I would like to repeat to you today: do not let the consumer culture and pleasure numb your conscience! Be alert and vigilant "watchmen", be the real champions of a new humanity.

3. Let us now address Our Lady, whose name was given to St Maria Goretti. May the purest of human creatures help the men and women of our time, and especially young people, to rediscover the value of chastity and to live interpersonal relations in reciprocal respect and sincere love.

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/angelus/2002/documents/hf_jp-ii_ang_20020707_en.html

[Saint] Maria Goretti
A Saint to Emulate [St. Maria Goretti]
St. Maria Teresa Goretti
[Saint] Maria Goretti - Virgin and Martyr
Saint Maria Goretti - Martyr of Purity

Information: St. Maria Goretti

Feast Day:	July 6
Born:	October 16, 1890(1890-10-16), Corinaldo, Province of Ancona, Marche, Kingdom of Italy
Died:	July 6, 1902 (aged 11), Nettuno, Province of Rome, Lazio, Kingdom of Italy
Canonized:	June 24, 1950, Rome by Pope Pius XII
Major Shrine:	Nettuno, Province of Rome, Lazio, Italy
Patron of:	Crime victims, teenage girls, modern youth, Children of Mary

Interactive Saints for Kids

St. Maria Goretti

Feast Day: July 06
Born: 1890 :: Died: 1902

Maria was born at Corinaldo, Ancona in Italy into a poor but loving home and was one of six children. She was baptized the day after she was born. Her father Luigi Goretti was a farmer. Her mother Assunta, was a poor orphan girl who did not know how to read or write. Luigi and Assunta loved God, Mother Mary and each other.

Their oldest child, a boy died when he was just a baby. Although they were very poor, and life was difficult, Luigi and Assunta thanked God for His great gifts. Assunta lovingly taught her children about God’s great love, by her words and actions.

The children had no toys, so a rock or an apple was used as a ball to play with. Maria never had a single doll and they could not afford to go to school, but they were a very happy family that lived in the light of God’s grace.

When Maria was six, she played like other children, running through the grass, picking flowers, laughing and smiling. But instead of playing with her friends, Maria played more often with her younger brothers and sister, and kept them happy so they would not trouble their mother.

Then the family moved to the Pontine Marshes where Luigi, along with his partner Mr. Serenelli and his sixteen year old son Allessandro (Alexander), lived together on Conte Mazzoleni’s farm as tenant farmers.

By the time she was nine, Maria did the family marketing. She always did her errands quickly and returned home where she was needed. She was a friendly girl and everyone loved her. A cheerful grocer Giovanni, gave Maria an apple one day, after she had finished paying for her groceries. But Maria did not eat it.

Instead, she thanked Giovanni and put it in her pocket saying that her brother Allesandrino loved apples. Then he gave her a cookie, which again she put in her pocket saying that she would give it to her little sister Ersilia. Giovanni finally gave her another cookie and said he would be very hurt if she didn’t eat it herself. So Maria not wanting to offend him, ate it.

A short time later, Mr. Luigi fell very ill and died, leaving Assunta to bring up her five children alone. At twelve, Maria was already very pretty. She helped her mother on the farm, in the house and with the care of the other children. She never complained because they were so poor. In fact, she cheered up her poor mother and was a great comfort to her.

She went to Mass every day even though it meant a two-hour walk. Maria received the sacrament of Reconciliation as often as she could. When she came home, she taught the children their prayers and told them Bible stories. Alexander who often joined the family for the rosary slowly began to notice how pretty Maria was.

He tried a few times to touch her and make Maria sin. She absolutely refused and did her best to avoid him. July 5, 1902, was a hot summer day. Maria was alone in the cottage mending clothes while her mother worked on the farm and Mr. Serenelli slept under a tree.

Alexander asked Maria to come to him, and when she refused, he dragged her into a room. Maria begged him not to touch her, repeating over and over that God did not want this, it was a sin and he would go to hell. When she struggled and tried to scream, he stuffed a handkerchief into her mouth and angrily stabbed her many times with a dagger and then ran away.

When they found her, Maria was quickly taken to a hospital but she died about twenty-four hours later. During her last hours she received Jesus in Holy Communion with great joy. She then told the priest that she forgave Alexander with all her heart, for the love of Jesus and hoped God would forgive him too.

Her only worry was for her mother. Alexander was sent to prison for thirty years. For a long time, he did not feel sorry for what he had done. Then one night Maria appeared to him in a dream, walking in a garden and offering him a bunch of Lilies. She said, she hoped he would come to heaven one day. From that moment on, he was a changed man.

He wrote a letter to the bishop, begging God’s forgiveness for the great sin he had committed. When he was freed from prison after twenty-seven years, his first visit was to the Goretti home where he asked Maria's mother for forgiveness. Then Alexander spent the rest of his life as the gardener in a nearby monastery.

On April 27, 1947, Pope Pius XII appeared on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica with Maria's eighty-two-year-old mother, Assunta and declared Maria “blessed”.

Three years later, in a grand ceremony that had to be held outside the Basilica because the crowds were so huge, Maria was declared a saint. It was the only time that a parent was present to witness their child's cannonization. The pope called her "a martyr of holy purity."

Reflection: We pray today for all children, that with courage they may stay away from sin and avoid hurting Jesus, who loves them so much. We ask St. Maria Goretti, to help them stay pure and holy.

Catholic

Almanac:

Friday, July 6
Liturgical Color: Green
Today is the optional memorial of St. Maria Goretti, virgin and martyr. She was stabbed to death in 1902 for refusing the advances of a family friend. After her death, Maria became a model of purity, an example to those trying to lead a chaste life.

Catholic Culture

Daily Readings for: July 06, 2012
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: O God, author if innocence and lover of chastity, who bestowed the grace of martyrdom on your handmaid, the Virgin Saint Maria Goretti, in her youth, grant, we pray, through her intercession, that, as you gave her a crown for her steadfastness, so we, too, may be firm in obeying your commandments. 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.

ACTIVITIES

PRAYERS

Prayer to St. Maria Goretti

Ordinary Time: July 6th

Optional Memorial of St. Maria Goretti, virgin and martyr

Old Calendar: St. Godelieva, martyr (Hist)

St. Maria Goretti was born near Ancona (Italy). The daughter of a poor peasant family, Maria was well known to her neighbors for her cheerfulness and piety. When she was twelve she was a victim of assault. She preferred to die rather than to lose her virginity. She died in 1902, and her mother was present at her canonization in 1950, the first time a parent was present for a child's canonization.

Historically today is the feast of St. Godelieva, martyred wife, strangled by her husband Bertulf of Ghistelles, a Flemish lord.

St. Maria Goretti
St. Maria Goretti was born of a poor family in Corinaldi, Italy, in 1890. Near Nettuno she spent a difficult childhood assisting her mother in domestic duties. She was of a pious nature and often at prayer. In 1902 she was stabbed to death, preferring to die rather than be raped. (Office of Readings)

"It is well known how this young girl had to face a bitter struggle with no way to defend herself. Without warning a vicious stranger (actually Alessandro Serenelli who lived with his father in the same house as the Goretti's.) burst upon her, bent on raping her and destroying her childlike purity. In that moment of crisis she could have spoken to her Redeemer in the words of that classic, The Imitation of Christ: "Though tested and plagued by a host of misfortunes, I have no fear so long as your grace is with me. It is my strength, stronger than any adversary; it helps me and gives me guidance." With splendid courage she surrendered herself to God and his grace and so gave her life to protect her virginity.

"The life of this simple girl—I shall concern myself only with highlights—we can see as worthy of heaven. Even today people can look upon it with admiration and respect. Parents can learn from her story how to raise their God-given children in virtue, courage and holiness; they can learn to train them in the Catholic faith so that, when put to the test, God's grace will support them and they will come through undefeated, unscathed and untarnished.

"From Maria's story carefree children and young people with their zest for life can learn not to be led astray by attractive pleasures which are not only ephemeral and empty but also sinful. Instead they can fix their sights on achieving Christian moral perfection, however difficult and hazardous that course may prove. With determination and God's help all of us can attain that goal by persistent effort and prayer.

"Not all of us are expected to die a martyr's death, but we are all called to the pursuit of Christian virtue. This demands strength of character though it may not match that of this innocent girl. Still, a constant, persistent and relentless effort is asked of us right up to the moment of our death. This may be conceived as a slow steady martyrdom which Christ urged upon us when he said: The kingdom of heaven is set upon and laid waste by violent forces.

"So let us all, with God's grace, strive to reach the goal that the example of the virgin martyr, Saint Maria Goretti, sets before us. Through her prayers to the Redeemer may all of us, each in his own way, joyfully try to follow the inspiring example of Maria Goretti who now enjoys eternal happiness in heaven."

Excerpted from a homily at the canonization of Saint Maria Goretti by Pope Pius XII

Imprisoned for murder she appeared to him in his cell and forgave him and he was subsequently converted. Most importantly, he sat next to her mother at the beatification, who also forgave him.

Patron: Against impoverishment; against poverty; children; children of Mary; girls; loss of parents; martyrs; rape victims; young people in general.

Things to Do:

Please visit this site for a more detailed account of St. Maria Goretti's life and Alessandro Serenelli's conversion.
This saint's feast day is a wonderful launching point to teach our children about purity, chastity and modesty. Sex education should be taught by the parents with a Catholic approach. Young girls can use St. Maria as a model.
A highly recommended book is St. Maria Goretti: In Garments All Red by Rev. Godfrey Poage. Young teens to adult will enjoy this account of her life.

The Word Among Us

Meditation: Amos 8:4-6, 9-12

“They shall wander … in search of the word of the Lord.” (Amos 8:12)

It’s hard to think of anything worse than a “famine” of the word of God. What if you lived in a country where you were forbidden to worship the Lord, own a Bible, or even speak the name of Jesus? Scripture tells us that something like this did happen to the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom around 721 b.c. It seems that Amos’ prophecy was indeed fulfilled when the Assyrian army overran Israel and sent the people into exile. And, as history attests, such persecutions have happened in many other countries and at many other times, including our own.

As bad as such a famine is, there is something worse: not listening to God when he does speak. That was essentially the problem with the people Amos was preaching to. They were observant: They celebrated the Sabbath, kept the feasts, and heard God’s word regularly. But even if their ears were open, their hearts were closed. Focused on their wealth, they couldn’t hear God’s call to love the poor, needy, and unwanted.

The truth is, we can get a little hard of hearing too, in spite of the fact that we have more access to the gospel than any culture before us. We are saturated with Bibles, churches, and teachers, but that doesn’t mean we find it any easier to love our neighbor. Faced with the weakness of our flesh, we can sometimes just cave in and say, “Not today, Lord!” So how can we make sure that God’s word gets past our ears and into our hearts?

For many of us, the answer may be to cut down on the “junk food” that is spoiling our spiritual appetite. Maybe we could turn off our computers and televisions for a short time, or get up a little bit earlier, and give Scripture the chance to soak into our spirits. If we sit with one passage and take the time to let God speak to us, we may hear something new and inspiring. After all, God’s word is “living and effective” (Hebrews 4:12). Brothers and sisters, we simply can’t live by bread alone, so let’s all decide to feed on the life-giving word of Scripture!

“Lord, I praise you for your word! May I love it more and more, and may it always give me the wisdom to live as your child!”

Psalm 119:2, 10, 20, 30, 40, 131 Matthew 9:9-13

Marriage = One Man and One Woman

Til' Death Do Us Part

Daily Marriage Tip for July 6, 2012:

(Reader’s Tip) We keep “Thankful” cards by our bed and each night write down one things we’re thankful for. At the end of the month we share the top five.

Vultus Christi

Benedictines and Adorers

By

Father Mark

on July 6, 2012 10:23 AM |

On the occasion of his visit to the Abbey of Heiligenkreuz on 9 September 2007, Pope Benedict XVI said:

In a monastery of Benedictine spirit, the praise of God, which the monks sing as a solemn choral prayer, always has priority. Monks are certainly - thank God! - not the only people who pray; others also pray: children, the young and the old, men and women, the married and the single - all Christians pray, or at least, they should!

In the life of monks, however, prayer takes on a particular importance: it is the heart of their calling. Their vocation is to be men of prayer. In the patristic period the monastic life was likened to the life of the angels. It was considered the essential mark of the angels that they are adorers. Their very life is adoration. This should hold true also for monks.

Monks pray first and foremost not for any specific intention, but simply because God is worthy of being praised. "Confitemini Domino, quoniam bonus! - Praise the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy is eternal!": so we are urged by a number of Psalms (e.g. Ps 106:1). Such prayer for its own sake, intended as pure divine service, is rightly called officium. It is "service" par excellence, the "sacred service" of monks. It is offered to the triune God who, above all else, is worthy "to receive glory, honour and power" (Rev 4:11), because he wondrously created the world and even more wondrously renewed it.

Monastic Cult and Monastic Culture

An attentive look at monastic history through the ages reveals that dedication to the primacy of the Divine Office has variously waxed and waned. Where it has waxed, the monastic grace has wonderfully flourished; where it has waned, every other dimension of monastic culture has suffered in consequence. Cult (from the Latin cultus for worship) is, in fact, the matrix of culture.

Eucharistic Adoration

What about those monasteries in which, in addition to the daily Conventual Mass and choral celebration of the Divine Office, there were various expressions of Eucharistic adoration? Looking at history, one notes that while monastic houses of women adorers abounded after the thirteenth century, especially in the Low Countries, few houses of men militating under the Rule of Saint Benedict were inspired to make a similar corporate commitment to adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Undoubtedly, there was a lurking and not altogether unfounded fear, that Eucharistic adoration, perpetual or otherwise prolonged, assumed in addition to the daily round of the Opus Dei, would lead to a loss of the characteristically Benedictine value of balance and moderation.

The Monks of Corpus Christi

The first monks under the Rule of Saint Benedict to adopt Eucharistic adoration as an identifying characteristic belonged to the Umbrian Congregation of Corpus Christi, founded by the Blessed Andrea di Paolo in 1328. The Monks of Corpus Christi, or Corpocristiani were aggregated to the Benedictine Congregation of Monte Oliveto by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. The last Corpus Christi Benedictine, Tommaso di Bastiano di Sterpete, of Foligno, died in 1640.

The Picpus Fathers

The Picpus Fathers, so called from the street of their first house in Paris, were founded under the Rule of Saint Benedict in 1800 by Father Pierre Coudrin and Mother Henriette Aymer de la Chevalerie. The full title of this religious family is a very long one but it expresses completely their founding grace: "The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary of the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar." Although members of the Congregation would identify themselves as missionary rather than classically Benedictine, the Rule of Saint Benedict remains for them a reference, and Eucharistic adoration is integral to their charism.

The most famous member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts is Saint Damien of Molokai. Father Damien's compassionate devotion to those suffering from leprosy was the fruit of the intimate knowledge of the pierced Side of Christ that came to him in long hours of adoration before the tabernacle. It is a little known fact that Father Damien laboured to establish perpetual adoration of the Eucharist among his dear lepers. In this there is something astonishingly beautiful; the sight of lepers adoring day and night the Suffering Servant who, disfigured in his Passion, became, "as one from whom men screen their faces" (Is 53:3), the "Lord of Glory" (1 Cor 2:8) whose face is "all the beauty of holy souls" (Litany of the Holy Face).

Dom Maréchal and the Abbey of Pont-Colbert

To the best of my knowledge, the next foundation of monks identified by Eucharistic adoration emerged only in 1892 when Dom Marie-Bernard Maréchal, a former Priest of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament and disciple of Saint Peter Julian Eymard, established the Abbey of Pont-Colbert near Versailles, France, for the Cistercian Adorers of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Father Paul Maréchal, later Dom Marie-Bernard, left the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament after the death of Saint Peter Julian Eymard, when his proposal to have the Blessed Sacrament Fathers adopt the Rule of Saint Benedict was rejected at a General Chapter of the Institute. In the wake of persecutions by the anticlerical French government at the beginning of the last century, the Cistercian Adorers of the Most Blessed Sacrament migrated to Marienkroon in Holland. Marienkroon, in turn, founded in 1929 the now defunct monastery of Val d'Espoir in the Canadian Gaspé peninsula, and brought its influence to bear upon the Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank in Sparta, Wisconsin.

Abbot Celestino Maria Colombo, O.S.B. (1874-1935)

The Olivetan Benedictine, Dom Celestino Maria Colombo, was appointed abbot of the Sanctuary of La Madonna del Pilastrello at Lendinara (Rovigo) by motu proprio of Pope Benedict XV on 15 December 1920. Abbot Celestino Maria was a devoted and tireless spiritual father to the Benedictine Nuns of the Perpetual Adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Monastery of Ghiffa. Later, he exercised the same role monasteries aggregated to Ghiffa in central and southern Italy, including that of Piedimonte Matese, which monastery I have known for thirty-five years.

The Annals of the Monastery of Ghiffa relate:

After having studied in depth the Constitutions and books of the Institute, after having practiced the spirit of them to an heroic degree, after having grounded the community in this same spirit, with a patient, enlightened, and prudent zeal, he asked for the grace of possessing our holy habit, of practicing our holy Constitutions, of being a true member of the Institute, a true victim of the Most Holy Sacrament.

The religious, in a unanimous joy, received the eucharistic vow of the Reverend Father. Since that day uninterrupted requests and prayers have been raised to heaven so that the Institute will have, at last, its complement to the glory of the Eucharist and so that the last breath of our great father Benedict will generate sons of the Host to the Host, Benedictine Adorers, the priestly victims to sustain and save the Church in the difficult last times. And so may it be.

The location of a little sanctuary dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity near the monastery of Ronco di Ghiffa, revived in Dom Celestino a desire that had never gone away: the birth of a Benedictine community of men dedicated to adoration and reparation of the Eucharist. One reads in the same Annals, that coming down, one day from the Sanctuary of the Most Holy Trinity to the monastery, he expressed "the wish that Eucharistic Benedictine Fathers would come one day to the Sanctuary of the Most Holy Trinity."

It is probable that this lively aspiration was never erased from the heart of Dom Celestino, enamoured as he was of the Eucharistic ideal proposed by Mother de Bar, and lived so well by the nuns of the monastery of Ghiffa. He had absorbed and appropriated for himself the spirit of the Benedictine Institute of Perpetual Adoration, to the point of living it faithfully and fostering its growth in every possible way until his saintly death on 24 September 1935.

Monastery of Our Lady of the Cenacle/Silverstream Priory

Silverstream Priory, founded under the patronage of Our Lady of the Cenacle, came to birth in the diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma in the context of the Year of the Priesthood. Early in 2012 the fledgling monastic community accepted an invitation to take root in County Meath, Ireland. The monastery is a response to the letter of Claudio Cardinal Hummes, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, dated December 8, 2007. In that letter, HIs Eminence said:

We are asking, therefore, all diocesan Ordinaries who apprehend in a particular way the specificity and irreplaceability of the ordained ministry in the life of the Church, together with the urgency of a common action in support of the ministerial priesthood, to take an active role and promote--in the different portions of the People of God entrusted to them--true and proper cenacles in which clerics, religious and lay people --united among themselves in the spirit of true communion--may devote themselves to prayer, in the form of continuous Eucharistic adoration in a spirit of genuine and authentic reparation and purification.

In the Explanatory Note accompanying the same letter, His Eminence asks that:

Each diocese appoint a priest who will devote himself full time - as far as possible - to the specific ministry of promoting Eucharistic adoration and coordinating this important service in the diocese. Dedicating himself generously to this ministry, this priest will be able to live this particular dimension of liturgical, theological, spiritual and pastoral life, possibly in a place specifically set aside for this purpose by the bishop himself, where the faithful will benefit from perpetual Eucharistic adoration.

Why More Monks?

In his Decree of Erection of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Cenacle, Bishop Edward J. Slattery, exposed the rationale behind this new foundation. His Excellency wrote:

With these concerns and exhortations in mind, and with the good of the priests and indeed all the faithful of the Diocese of Tulsa close to my heart, it is my intention to respond to these timely suggestions of the Holy See to the best of my ability.

Reflecting upon our particular needs, and upon the current resources with which we are blessed, it seems that such an endeavor might best be accomplished by a new monastic community under the Rule of Saint Benedict. Rather than have only a single priest dedicated to Eucharistic adoration for the sanctification of the clergy, I deem it advantageous to enrich our local Church with a monastic community to whom I give this particular mandate. Professing the vows of stability, conversatio morum, and obedience according to the Rule of Saint Benedict and the Constitutions of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Cenacle, the Benedictine Monks, Adorers of the Eucharistic Face of Jesus will be characterized by the particular charism of (a) Eucharistic adoration for the sanctification of priests and the spiritual renewal of the clergy in the whole Church; (b) reparation for the sins that disfigure the Face of Christ the Priest; and (c) the sacramental and spiritual support of the clergy by means of monastic hospitality, spiritual direction, and retreats.

Your Prayerful Support

For my part, I can only recommend our new beginning in Stamullen, County Meath, Ireland, to the fervent prayers of all my readers. Our initiative springs, not from any personal ambition, but from the very heart of the Church: Ecclesia de Eucharistia.

Regnum Christi

Where Mercy Reigns

| SPIRITUAL LIFE | SPIRITUALITY

Friday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Matthew 9:9-13

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" He heard this and said, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, ´I desire mercy, not sacrifice.´ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."

Introductory Prayer: Lord, I come to you in this meditation ready to do whatever it is you ask. Left to myself I often take the easy and convenient path, yet I know the way of a Christian is through the narrow gate. In you I find the reason to abandon the easy path for a more perfect mission of love. I’m ready to learn the meaning of your command: “Follow me.”

Petition: Lord, grant me the grace of a humble and contrite heart.

1. "Why Does Your Teacher Eat with Tax Collectors and Sinners?" The Pharisees want to keep their status secure. In their eyes, religion is not a quest for truth, but a way to tranquilize their conscience under the guise of a law which makes few demands on them. They are unwilling to break away from the “baby food” that is the old law and chew on the “steak” of real holiness. It is easy to return back to “baby food” and to remember the times when God was asking less , in order to keep a false sense of peace . Such a manner is never enough, though, for an honest man of God , who learns every day to face the brutal facts of who he really is before God – that God expects much from him, and that the Lord’s grace will empower him to deliver. I must seek out the areas of routine where I have justified myself in giving less than what Christ is really asking.

2. “I Did Not Come to Call the Righteous but Sinners." How does God pick which souls to approach with his consoling presence? “Through the abundance of your mercy, O God our Savior, you appeared to sinners and tax collectors. Where else was your light to shine if not upon those who were sitting in darkness? Glory be to you!” (Iraeneus, Anthologion, 1:1390). Christ is attracted to those to whom his grace will mean something, those in whom there is fertile ground for a response to his invitation to holiness. No abundance of religious achievement or spiritual knowledge will catch his attention, but put in front of him a contrite soul ready to abandon himself to his grace, and there he is.

3. “Those Who Are Well Do Not Need a Physician, But the Sick Do.”

A posture of humility helps us to never take God’s mercy for granted. One day Brother Elias found St . Francis crying over how terrible a sinner he was. Surprised, Br. Elias asked how he could think such a thing. Francis therein recalled all the graces he had received, and reflected that if any other man had received them they would have been a far greater man than he (Crowley, A Day With the Lord, p.146). Such are the saints – never satisfied with themselves, always in need of God and his mercy. All that Christ needs to make me a saint is that I have a heart ready to change and be ready to base myself on his grace and less on my formulas for success.

Conversation with Christ: Lord, I ask you to receive me in all my weakness, so that I may more confidently base my future growth on your grace and mercy. Let me enter heaven, as St. Theresa of the Child Jesus wished, “with my hands empty.” All glory and victory is yours alone. Thank you for choosing me, out of love for me.

Resolution: I will set a time and place for confession this week, that I may honor God’s mercy and show with my fervor what it means for me to be his chosen one.

We are Called to Bring Justice and Show Mercy

First Reading: 1 Am 8:4-6, 9-12

Psalm: 119:2, 10, 20, 30, 40, 131

Gospel: Mt 9:9-13

Matthew the tax collector and the rich Israelites of Amos’s day were engaged pretty much in the same sort of business activity. Both robbed the poor. In the first reading Amos condemns the rich Israelites because they could hardly wait for the Sabbath and other feast days to come to an end to get back to their business of unjust profiteering, of gouging the poor. They lessened the size of the grain measure (the epha) so the poor would get less when they buy, and they increased the silver measure (the shekel) so the poor would have to pay more. They maltreated the poor, treated them as commodities to be bought and sold. They sold to them even the leavings of the wheat, swept up from the floor, food unfit for human consumption.

The tax collector in Jesus’ day also gouged the poor. He bought the job of tax collector from the Romans. He made his living by overcharging his countrymen, rich and poor. What was over and above the required tax he kept for himself. He made a good living.

The Pharisees condemned tax collectors just as Amos condemned the oppressors of the poor in his day. What the Pharisees didn’t see was that Amos’s condemnation was an attempt to call the unjust rich to repentance. Nor did they see that Jesus’ friendship with tax collectors and other sinners was an attempt to bring them to repentance.

Jesus sees the Pharisees as wanting in mercy even as the rich of Amos’s day showed no mercy to the poor whom they squeezed ruthlessly. To correct the Pharisees, Jesus cites the prophet Amos, “Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘It is mercy I desire and not sacrifice.’”

The lives of Christians are to be patterned on Jesus’ life. We are to be concerned about both justice and mercy. We are to bring justice to those suffering injustice, we are to show mercy to all.

One Bread, One Body

<< Friday, July 6, 2012 >>

St. Maria Goretti
Saint of the Day

Amos 8:4-6, 9-12
View Readings

Psalm 119:2, 10, 20, 30, 40, 131

Matthew 9:9-13

YEARN TO LEARN GOD

"I gasp with open mouth in my yearning for Your commands." —Psalm 119:131

During Mass, are we concentrating on the next sale at work or the ballgame that afternoon? (Am 8:5) Amos urges us to listen intently to the Word of God, for a time is coming when there will be a famine for hearing the Word of God (Am 8:11). Those who live in countries where faith is persecuted may understand all too well the spiritual starvation in such a famine.

We must work at listening to God. Listening to the Lord sacrificially is a good thing. Still, God wants more from us than sacrifices (Mt 9:9, 13). We are His beloved. He wants a more intimate relationship with us. For if we sacrifice for God, yet have not love, we gain nothing (1 Cor 13:3).

God wants us to yearn for His Word (Ps 119:131) with a yearning far deeper than that of a beloved longing to hear from a separated lover. With the psalmist, let us tell God: "My soul is consumed with longing for Your ordinances at all times" (Ps 119:20). The Lord wants us to listen to His Word and "long for" it (Ps 119:40), so we may not just know what is good, but also listen so as to know Him (Phil 3:8-10) and to love Him with our all (Lk 10:27). Our sacrificial service to Him and others will then flow out of a response to His amazing love.

Prayer: "Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening" (1 Sm 3:9).

Promise: "I have come to call, not the self-righteous, but sinners." —Mt 9:13

Praise: God rewarded St. Maria's mother by allowing her to live long enough to witness her daughter's canonization as a saint forty-eight years after she was martyred.

Matthew
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	Matthew 9
9.	And when Jesus passed on from hence, he saw a man sitting in the custom house, named Matthew; and he saith to him: Follow me. And he rose up and followed him.	Et, cum transiret inde Jesus, vidit hominem sedentem in telonio, Matthæum nomine. Et ait illi : Sequere me. Et surgens, secutus est eum.	και παραγων ο ιησους εκειθεν ειδεν ανθρωπον καθημενον επι το τελωνιον ματθαιον λεγομενον και λεγει αυτω ακολουθει μοι και αναστας ηκολουθησεν αυτω
10.	And it came to pass as he was sitting at meat in the house, behold many publicans and sinners came, and sat down with Jesus and his disciples.	Et factum est, discumbente eo in domo, ecce multi publicani et peccatores venientes, discumbebant cum Jesu, et discipulis ejus.	και εγενετο αυτου ανακειμενου εν τη οικια και ιδου πολλοι τελωναι και αμαρτωλοι ελθοντες συνανεκειντο τω ιησου και τοις μαθηταις αυτου
11.	And the Pharisees seeing it, said to his disciples: Why doth your master eat with publicans and sinners?	Et videntes pharisæi, dicebant discipulis ejus : Quare cum publicanis et peccatoribus manducat magister vester ?	και ιδοντες οι φαρισαιοι ειπον τοις μαθηταις αυτου δια τι μετα των τελωνων και αμαρτωλων εσθιει ο διδασκαλος υμων
12.	But Jesus hearing it, said: They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill.	At Jesus audiens, ait : Non est opus valentibus medicus, sed male habentibus.	ο δε ιησους ακουσας ειπεν αυτοις ου χρειαν εχουσιν οι ισχυοντες ιατρου αλλ οι κακως εχοντες
13.	Go then and learn what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the just, but sinners.	Euntes autem discite quid est : Misericordiam volo, et non sacrificium. Non enim veni vocare justos, sed peccatores.	πορευθεντες δε μαθετε τι εστιν ελεον θελω και ου θυσιαν ου γαρ ηλθον καλεσαι δικαιους αλλα αμαρτωλους εις μετανοιαν

9. And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said to him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.
10. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many Publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.
11. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, Why does your Master eat with Publicans and sinners?
12. But when Jesus heard that, he said to them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
13. But go and learn what that means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

CHRYS; Having wrought this miracle, Christ would not abide in the same place, lest He should rouse the envy of the Jews. Let us also do thus, not obstinately opposing those who lay in wait for us. And as Jesus departed thence, (namely from the place in which He had done this miracle,) he saw a man sitting at the receipt of custom, Matthew by name.

JEROME; The other Evangelists from respect to Matthew have not called him by his common name, but say here, Levi, for he had both names. Matthew himself, according to that Solomon says, The righteous man accuses himself, calls himself both Matthew and Publican, to show the readers that none need despair of salvation who turn to better things, seeing He from a Publican became an Apostle.

GLOSS; He says, sitting at the receipt of custom, that is, in the place where the tolls were collected. He was named Telonarius, from a Greek word signifying taxes.

CHRYS; Herein he shows the excellent power of Him that called him; while engaged in this dangerous office He rescued him from the midst of evil, as also Paul while he was yet mad against the Church. He said to him, Follow me. As you have seen the power of Him that calls, so learn the obedience of him that is called; He neither refuses, nor requests to go home and inform his friends.

REMIG; He esteems lightly human dangers which might accrue to him from his masters for leaving his accounts in disorder, but, he arose, and followed him. And because he relinquished earthly gain, therefore of right was he made the dispenser of the Lord's talents.

JEROME; Porphyry and the Emperor Julian insist from this account, that either the historian is to be charged with falsehood, or those who so readily followed the Savior with haste and temerity, as if He called any without reason. They forget also the signs and wonders which had preceded, and which no doubt the Apostles had seen before they believed. Yea the brightness of effulgence or the hidden Godhead which beamed from His human countenance might attract them at first view. For if the loadstone can, as it is said, attract iron, how much more can the Lord of all creation draw to Himself whom He will!

CHRYS; But why did He not call him at the same time with Peter and John and the others? Because he was then still in a hardened state, but after many miracles, and great fame of Christ, when He who knows the inmost secrets of the heart, perceived him more disposed to obedience, then He called him.

AUG; Or, perhaps it is more probable that Matthew here turns back to relate something that he had omitted; and we may suppose Matthew to have been called before the sermon on the mount; for on the mount, as Luke relates, the twelve, whom He also named Apostles, were chosen.

GLOSS; Matthew places his calling among the miracles; for a great miracle it was, a Publican becoming an Apostle.

CHRYS; Why is it then that nothing is said of the rest of the Apostles how or when they were called, but only of Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew? Because these were in the most alien and lowly stations, for nothing can he more disreputable than the office of Publican, nothing more abject than that of fisherman.

GLOSS; As a meet return for the heavenly mercy, Matthew prepared a great feast for Christ in His house, bestowing his temporal goods on Him of whom he looked to receive everlasting goods. It follows, And it came to pass as he sat at meat in the house.

AUG; Matthew has not said in whose house Jesus sat at meat (on this occasion), from which we might suppose, that this was not told in its proper order, but that what took place at some other time is inserted here as it happened to come into His mind; did not Mark and Luke who relate the same show that it was in Levi's that is, in Matthew's house.

CHRYS; Matthew being honored by the entrance of Jesus into his house, called together all that followed the same calling with himself; Behold many Publicans and sinners came and sat down with Jesus, and with his disciples.

GLOSS; The Publicans were they who were engaged in public business, which seldom or never can be carried on without sin. And a beautiful omen of the future, that he that was to be an Apostle and doctor of the Gentiles, at his first conversion draws after him a great multitude of sinners to salvation, already performing by his example what He was shortly to perform by word.

GLOSS; Tertullian says that these must have been Gentiles, because Scripture says, There shall be no payer of tribute in Israel, as if Matthew were not a Jew. But the Lord did not sit down to meat with Gentiles, being more especially careful not to break the Law, as also He gave commandment to His disciples below, Go not into the way of the Gentiles.

JEROME; But they had seen the Publican turning from sins to better things, and finding place of repentance, and on this account they do not despair of salvation.

CHRYS. This they came near to our Redeemer, and that not only to converse with Him, but to sit at meat with Him; for so not only by disputing, or healing, or convincing His enemies, but by eating with them, He often times healed such as were ill-disposed, by this teaching us, that all times, and all actions, may be made means to our advantage. When the Pharisees saw this they were indignant; And the Pharisees beholding said to his disciples, Why does your Master eat with Publicans and sinners? It should be observed, that when the disciples seemed to be doing what was sinful, these same addressed Christ, Behold your disciples are doing what it is not allowed to do on the Sabbath. Here they speak against Christ to His disciples, both being the part of malicious persons, seeking to detach the hearts of the disciple from the Master.

RABAN; They are in a twofold error; first, they esteemed themselves righteous, though in their pride they had departed far from righteousness; secondly, they charged with unrighteousness those who by recovering themselves from sin were drawing near to righteousness.

AUG; Luke seems to have related this a little differently; according to him the Pharisees say to the disciples, Why do you eat and drink with Publicans and sinners? not unwilling that their Master should be understood to be involved in the same charge; insinuating it at once against Himself and His disciples. Therefore Matthew and Mark have related it as said to the disciples, because go it was as much an objection against their Master whom they followed and imitated. The sense therefore is one in all, and so much the better conveyed, as the words are changed while the substance continues the same.

JEROME; For they do not come to Jesus while they remain in their original condition of sin, as the Pharisees and Scribes complain, but in penitence, as what follows proves; But Jesus hearing said, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

RABAN; He calls Himself a physician, because by a wonderful kind of medicine He was wounded for our iniquities that He might heal the wound of our sin. By the whole, He means those who seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the true righteousness of God. By the sick, He means those who, tied by the consciousness of their frailty, and seeing that they are not justified by the Law, submit themselves in penitence to the grace of God.

CHRYS; Having first spoken in accordance with common opinion, He now addresses them out of Scripture, saying, Go and learn what that means, I will have mercy and not sacrifice.

JEROME; This text from Osee is directed against the Scribes and Pharisees, who, deeming themselves righteous, refused to keep company with Publicans and Sinners.

CHRYS; As much as to say; How do you accuse me for reforming sinners? Therefore in this you accuse God the Father also. For as He wills the amendment of sinners, even so also do I. And He shows that this that they blamed was not only not forbidden, but was even by the Law set above sacrifice; for He said not, I will have mercy as well as sacrifice, but chooses the one and rejects the other.

GLOSS; Yet does not God condemn sacrifice, but sacrifice without mercy. But the Pharisees often offered Sacrifices in the temple that they might seem to men to be righteous, but did not practice the deeds of mercy by which true righteousness is proved.

RABAN; He therefore warns them, that by deeds of mercy they should seek for themselves the rewards of time mercy that is above, and, not overlooking the necessities of the poor, trust to please God by offering sacrifice. Wherefore, He says, Go; that is, from the rashness of foolish fault-finding to a more careful meditation of Holy Scripture, which highly commends mercy, and proposes to them as a guide His own example of mercy, saying, I came not to call the righteous but sinners.

AUG; Luke adds to repentance, which explains the sense; that none should suppose that sinners are loved by Christ because they are sinners; and this comparison of the sick shows what God means by calling sinners, as a physician does the sick to be saved from their iniquity as from a sickness: which is done by penitence.

HILARY; Christ came for all; how is it then that He says He came not for the righteous? Were there those for whom it needed not that He should come? But no man is righteous by the law. He shows how empty their boast of justification, sacrifices being inadequate to salvation, mercy was necessary for all who were set under the Law.

CHRYS; Whence we may suppose that He is speaking ironically, as when it is said, Behold now Adam is become as one of us. For that there is none righteous on earth Paul shows, All have sinned, and need glory of God. By this saying He also consoled those who were called; as though He had said, So far am I from abhorring sinners, that for their sakes only did I come.

GLOSS; Or; Those who were righteous, as Nathanael and John the Baptist, were not to be invited to repentance. Or, I came not to call the righteous, that is, the feignedly righteous, those who boasted of their righteousness as the Pharisees, but those that owned themselves sinners.

RABAN; In the call of Matthew and the Publicans is figured the faith of the Gentiles who first gaped after the gain of the world, and are now spiritually refreshed by the Lord; in the pride of the Pharisees, the jealousy of the Jews at the salvation of the Gentiles. Or, Matthew signifies the man intent on temporal gain; Jesus sees him, when He looks on him with the eyes of mercy. For Matthew is interpreted ' given,' Levi 'taken,' the penitent is taken out of the mass of the perishing, and by God's grace given to the Church. And Jesus said to him, Follow Me, either by preaching, or by the admonition of Scripture, or by internal illumination.

Catena Aurea Matthew 9

The Calling of Saint Matthew

Caravaggio

1599-1600
Oil on canvas, 322 x 340 cm
Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome

July 6, 2012

Friday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 Am 8:4-6, 9-12

Responsorial Psalm Ps 119:2, 10, 20, 30, 40, 131

Gospel Mt 9:9-13

St. Maria Goretti

Daily Readings for: July 06, 2012
(Readings on USCCB website)

ACTIVITIES

PRAYERS

Optional Memorial of St. Maria Goretti, virgin and martyr

Meditation: Amos 8:4-6, 9-12

Benedictines and Adorers

We are Called to Bring Justice and Show Mercy

One Bread, One Body

YEARN TO LEARN GOD

July 6, 2012

Friday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 Am 8:4-6, 9-12

Responsorial Psalm Ps 119:2, 10, 20, 30, 40, 131

Gospel Mt 9:9-13

St. Maria Goretti

Daily Readings for: July 06, 2012(Readings on USCCB website)

ACTIVITIES

PRAYERS

Optional Memorial of St. Maria Goretti, virgin and martyr

Meditation: Amos 8:4-6, 9-12

Benedictines and Adorers

We are Called to Bring Justice and Show Mercy

One Bread, One Body

YEARN TO LEARN GOD

Daily Readings for: July 06, 2012
(Readings on USCCB website)